San Diego CityBeat • Nov 16, 2016

2 · San Diego CityBeat · November 16, 2016

#SDCityBeat

UP FRONT | FROM THE EDITOR

Homeless deaths skyrocket in San Diego

M

ORE THAN TWICE AS MANY There are four homicides listed among homeless people died alone on this year’s 115 deaths, according to JohnSan Diego streets this year as son. Recall that three homicides were comcompared to two years ago. Think about mitted this past summer by a serial killer that for a second—the number has dou- who terrorized the city. Police arrested a bled in two years. It’s a sobering thought suspect with a history of mental health isas some national advocacy organizations sues who reportedly killed homeless indicommemorate an annual Hunger and viduals with railroad spikes and lit some of Homeless Awareness Week (Nov. 12 to 20). his victims on fire.

The San Diego Rescue Mission disclosed Reaction from different corners of San in its 2014 report that 56 people who were Diego to the annual silent vigil is mixed, homeless died that year, according to re- according to Johnson. He said the media cords from the County Medical Examiner’s responds and reports stories. “But we’ve Office. There was major concern last year thrown in the towel on asking politicians to when that number increased to 90; now attend,” he said. “We’ve not received a lot of the annual report shows that 115 deaths oc- interest.” curred in 2016.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer reTo balloon from 56 to 115 in just two cently tapped Stacie Spector to be his senior years is significant. “I wish I had an an- advisor for housing solutions, a position COURTESY OF MISSION FOCUSED swer for why this is that essentially gives happening,” said San her primary city Diego Rescue Misoversight of homesion President and lessness.

Spector CEO Herb Johnson. did not attend the “I don’t know what’s march, though Johngoing on—but I do son credits her with know the Regional touring the Rescue Task Force [on the Mission and listenHomeless in San Diing to his concerns. ego Country] report“Even one uned that the unshelSan Diego Rescue Mission’s Interfaith necessary death is tered homeless popCandlelight Vigil too many,” Spector ulation went up 20 said via email, repercent last year while the sheltered num- garding the two-year jump. “Our focus is to help people get the services and shelter ber went down about that same amount.”

The 2016 count of homeless people in they need working with our county, housthe county found 8,692 people living in the ing commission, service providers and streets or in shelters here. Long-time ob- RCCC [Regional Continuum of Care Counservers believe the annual Point-In-Time cil] partners to vastly reduce the number of Count does not find all the local homeless people living and sleeping on the streets.”

If you’re wondering how the recent individuals, making the actual number, in all likelihood, significantly higher. The of- presidential election may affect how the ficial count pegs San Diego as the United federal government spends money on States city with the fourth highest home- homelessness, you’re not alone.

“The policy outcomes of the election less population, following New York City, remain to be seen,” said Spector. “What we Los Angeles and Seattle.

Johnson has been at the Rescue Mission know is that the current federal allocation for a decade, and it’s believed the faith- of funding from the Housing and Urban based service provider has marked the an- Development (HUD) Department via their nual death count for 16 years with an Inter- supportive housing formula is extremely unbalanced. San Diego is a very low priority faith Candlelight Vigil.

This year, as in year’s past, concerned in the funding formula. We rank 28th in the citizens gathered at the Rescue Mission on country for priority in funding to deal with the border of Bankers Hill for a silent march homelessness issues, yet we are fourth in the that makes two stops at downtown churches nation for the highest number of unsheltered and ends up at the San Diego County Ad- people living and sleeping on the streets. ministration Building. During this year’s That funding formula is unacceptable.”

Johnson agrees with Spector on the march people carried 115 sets of shoes—toetagged the way dead bodies are identified at point of HUD funding imperatives. And he a morgue—to represent each homeless per- is correct—to my observation—that amid all the scary rhetoric flung during the presison who died during the past year.

It’s a sobering event and a humbling ex- dential campaigns, one marginalized set of perience,” said Johnson. He noted that 58 the population was never even mentioned.

“I didn’t hear the term ‘homeless’ deaths this year were listed as “accidental,” which could include anything from being brought up once by any candidate,” Johnhit by a car to blunt force trauma to the son said.

head, a fall or an altercation. This category

—Ron Donoho does not include deaths due to health reasons or homicide.

Write to rond@sdcitybeat.com

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November 16, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 3

UP FRONT | LETTERS

DIA DE LOS BASEBALL

Here is my visceral response to Lizz Huerta’s “Get off my altar” article from the Nov. 2 issue of CityBeat. I am a true gringo married to a full-blooded Mexicana. I was never comfortable with a culture that taught me to fear death, to be afraid of the dark and, most recently, that my neighbors are suspect. I had an epiphany when introduced to the Dia de los Muertos tradition of sharing a meal with the deceased at the graveyard.

Eating a tranquil lunch, with the woman I love, among the anonymous graves of ancestral Americans, I was at peace. Nov. 2, 2016, was the two-year anniversary of my mother’s passing.

An all-American child of a mixed marriage that ended in divorce, I grew up one of six children in a single-mother household.

My mother happened to be a baseball fanatic—a lifelong, diehard Mets fan. Every October we watched the World Series, regardless of what teams were competing.

Nov. 2 of this year also happened to be Game 7 of an epic World Series. As I sat eating pizza watching the Cubs and Indians in a back-and-forth affair, I had this comforting feeling that my mother was there with me sharing in the intensity of a highly competitive World Series. During the game, when my wife got home from work, I told her of this mystical experience I was having. She kissed me on the forehead and went into the bedroom, leaving us alone to watch history together one more time.

There was no altar, no orange marigolds and no candles. There was no face painting, either.

There was food, the picture of my mother hanging on the wall and on the TV there was the World Series. I won’t apologize

for my co-opting of Dia de los Muertos tradition, my mother would have wanted it that way.

Gerald Vanderpot, North Park

DAY OF (ALL THE) DEAD

Umm, I guess it doesn’t matter what a good a white person does in their life, they just aren’t allowed to enjoy a cultural festival [“Get of my altar,” Nov. 2]?

It seems trendy to single out whites lately. This kind of drivel is about as insensitive as letting David Duke be next week’s guest contributor. I enjoyed Day of the Dead quite a bit in Old Town and didn’t see any “No Whites” signs posted. People of all races seemed to be having a great time!

I’m saddened that Lizz Huerta thinks others don’t have the right to participate.

John Burgess, Old Town

NASTY IS…

Alex Zaragoza, you are sassy and smart. How about a little feminine class before you find yourself becoming a Trumpette?

Your article [“Sluts and nasty women, and proud,” Nov. 2] started me wondering why there are so many female “victims” in America. What happened to the powerful feminine mystique? Why are we giving our power away? Why are we allowing it to be taken from us and failing to reclaim it? We have to start taking responsibility. We have choices.

Yes, Trump is toxic. Among other things, he’s a racist, a sociopath and a misogynist. We know this. Why are we giving him so much attention and power?

We draw toward us what we are. When we act like queens and

goddesses then kings and gods show up.

When we glorify sluts and nasty women, join SlutWalks, spew four-letter words and demean our sexuality, what does that do for our dignity?

Can we really expect quality men to respect, admire and want us.

Michelle Obama, America’s most beautiful goddess, says it best: “When they go low, we go high.” That’s class. That’s ultimate girl power and freedom.

Anna Bowen-Davies, University Heights

OLANGO & KING

Kudos to Aaryn Belfer for highlighting the painful contrast between the great respect accorded to Chelsea King’s memorials and the phalanx of police in riot gear sent to destroy the small memorial to Alfred Olango [“Police had no reason to dismantle Olango memorial,” Oct. 12].

I would also like to point to the video of the immediate aftermath of Olango’s shooting. His sister is standing wailing, devastated by what no sister should ever have to witness, many police cars pull up and officers pile out, and nobody, for what seems like an eternity, ever goes over to Olango’s sister, says a kind word or asks if there is something they can do. She stands alone in her horrific grief and shock, until finally an officer comes to briskly tell her she must leave because they are putting up caution tape.

Would this have happened in that way if there were—unlikely though that is—a similar event with white people in La Jolla?

The treatment of Olango’s sister as if she were a piece of furniture seemed evidence of how her brother could be so summarily shot.

This issue of CityBeat is still alive—no matter what you may have read on Facebook.

Volume 15 • Issue 16 EDITOR Ron Donoho MUSIC EDITOR Jeff Terich ARTS EDITOR Seth Combs WEB EDITOR Ryan Bradford ART DIRECTOR Carolyn Ramos STAFF WRITER Torrey Bailey COLUMNISTS Aaryn Belfer, Edwin Decker, Minda Honey, John R. Lamb, Alex Zaragoza

CONTRIBUTORS Matthew Baldwin, David L. Coddon, Beth Demmon, Andrew Dyer, Tiffany Fox, Michael A. Gardiner, Glenn Heath Jr., Peter Holslin, Lara McCaffrey, Scott McDonald, Sebastian Montes, Jenny Montgomery, Michelle Poveda, Jim Ruland, Ben Salmon, Tom Siebert, Jen Van Tieghem, Amy Wallen

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jason Noble ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Beau Odom Mark Schreiber Jenny Tormey ACCOUNTING Kacie Cobian, Sharon Huie Linda Lam HUMAN RESOURCES Andrea Baker

EDITORIAL INTERNS Jordan Packer, Sofia Mejias-Pascoe

VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE Kacie Sturek

PRODUCTION MANAGER Tristan Whitehouse

VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS David Comden

MULTIMEDIA ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Paulina Porter-Tapia

PUBLISHER Kevin Hellman

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES Interested in advertising?

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San Diego CityBeat is published and distributed every Wednesday by Southland Publishing Inc., free of charge but limited to one per reader. Reproduction of any material in this or any other issue is prohibited without written permission from the publisher and the author. Contents copyright 2016.

4 · San Diego CityBeat · November 16, 2016

I am not pointing at the individual officers as much as to a system that gives them no guidance, and to systemic racism in our community that as white people we all bear responsibility for.

Cynthia Rich, San Diego

KING & OLANGO

In [“Police had no reason to dismantle Olango memorial,” Oct. 12], Aaryn Belfer compares protests against the police shooting in El Cajon with memorials for Chelsea King. This is an insult to the memory of King and the movement inspired by her murder.

Olango had prior brushes with the law. His sister called the police for help. He took a shooting stance against the cops.

They did what they are trained to do in that situation. To act like this is the same as other police shootings is naive. I’m also guessing Belfer is against all those other shootings simply based on the color of the officer, and the person shot (which in a sense, makes her the one doing the racial profiling). It’s like that situation where people were protesting, only to find out later the cop who did the shooting was himself black.

Belfer describes the police protesters as mourners holding vigil while every other news organization in San Diego calls them protesters. But calling them protesters doesn’t support Belfer’s narrative. As we’ve seen from other such gatherings, these situations escalate into looting, fires and shootings. How is this conducive to anything productive? Perhaps law enforcement in El Cajon didn’t want it to escalate, so they shut things down quickly. If the friends/family want to mourn, they can go to the graveyard, Balboa Park or anywhere other than where businesses are trying to stay open and make money (on the radio, they mentioned how all of them had to close one day).

Belfer sees this as an issue of black and white and wants to bend the story to fit her skewed viewpoint. She wants to start a movement. She writes of the words of King’s family: “Those words. They are the words of a movement and make me feel some kind of way.” What does that even mean? It makes about as much sense as her column.

Catherine Wilson, Escondido

TABLE OF CONTENTS UP FRONT From the Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Letters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Spin Cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

At The Intersection . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sordid Tales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3 4 5 6 7

FOOD & DRINK The World Fare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Dishing It Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Beerdist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

THINGS TO DO Short List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Calendar of Events. . . . . . . . . . 11-13

ARTS & CULTURE FEATURE: Lowrider Oldies. . . . . 16 Theater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Seen Local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Films. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20-21

MUSIC FEATURE: Warpaint. . . . . . . . . . .22 Notes from the Smoking Patio. . 24 If I Were U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Concerts & Clubs. . . . . . . . . . 26-28

LAST WORDS Advice Goddess. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

ON THE

COVER

To complement Minda Honey’s powerful essay on page 6 (“Did you ever think your country could break your heart?”), we turned to artist Matt Stallings for the cover.

Known for his amazing blend of pop surrealism, pop culture and corporate subversion, Stallings’ work has also appeared on previous CityBeat covers. He debuted “McDonald” at his Rare Specimens solo show at CM Curatorial in August. Stallings is feeling a little broken-hearted, but remains sarcastic. “I wonder if he will end Obama’s presidency with America’s future tag line, ‘You’re fired,’” Stallings says.

“Good luck to us all. I hope bomb shelters go on sale this upcoming Black Friday.”

#SDCityBeat

JOHN R. LAMB

UP FRONT | OPINION

SPIN

CYCLE

JOHN R. LAMB

Post-election postmortem One of the definitions of sanity is the ability to tell real from unreal.

Soon we’ll need a new definition.

O

—Alvin Toffler

K, OK, so the orangetinted name salesman with straw mane bagged the most-challenging, bigliest job on the planet last week. Big deal.

What about Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s “dimming star,” according to the typically cordial San Diego Union-Tribune, in a column headline this week?

From a comfy, low-turnout reelection in June and 2018 gubernatorial handicapping to…this?

Why the no-luster bluster from the hometown mainstreamer for Mayor Tippytoes?

For starters, last Tuesday will not be a featured chapter in any future Faulconer memoir, unless he got his hands on a particularly well-constructed, inexpensive gin and tonic. No, the mayor who

#SDCityBeat

joined a few political causes but seemed hesitant to lead on any won’t likely reserve much room in his political scrapbook under the heading “Nov. 8, 2016, general election: My siesta!”

His 11th-hour endorsement of the San Diego Chargers’ Measure C stadium measure? Nary a discernable blip on the initiative’s eventual flameout at the polls. His backing of San Diego City Council candidates Ray Ellis, Anthony Bernal and Ricardo Flores? Whiff, whiff and triple whiff. City attorney pick Robert Hickey? No sir, Mara Elliott responded. County supervisor candidate pick and momentary Trump endorser Kristin Gaspar? Unofficial results suggest otherwise.

Even his much-trumpeted anti-Trump take back in May—“I reject the rhetoric that we’ve seen on women. I reject the rhetoric that I’ve seen on the Latino community”—got melted down into a semi-digestible tweetment the

day after Trump’s victory.

“America’s democratic process has given us our next president,” Faulconer dug deep on Twitter.

“When the president is successful our country is successful, and I sincerely hope that Presidentelect Trump will now act as a unifying force that brings our nation together.”

“San Diegans,” the mayor added, “want Washington to focus on supporting our local defense industry, innovation sectors and binational economy. It is now time to move past the divisive rhetoric that defined this election and work together for the good of the American people.”

Real stars-and-stripes stuff, no doubt, but let’s get back to the losing streak. After U-T political columnist Michael Smolens posted his column Monday, he noted that he had forgotten another, deliciously ironic mayoral-endorsement beatdown from the impressive showings of Measures K and L, which will assure that the fates of future city candidates and ballot measures are decided during general elections, when voter turnout is higher and voters more attentive, rather than primaries.

Faulconer opposed both measures, as did his Republican city council colleagues. Adding to the drama was the person who point-

Mayor Kevin Faulconer emerged from last week’s election with little to show for his efforts. Rats! ed out the latter losses—state AsBriggs, naturally, is no politisemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, cian, so what came next might be whose name jangles through the confusing to armchair pundits. rumor mill as a possible 2020 “I’m relieved that Measure D mayoral candidate. didn’t pass,” he said.

“Our SD local GOP & Mayor Wait, thousands of dollars—inlost every major race last week. cluding his own—spent on gatherTotal complete failure,” Gonzalez ing signatures to put it on the baltweeted before noting the missing lot, and good riddance? One, he’s K and L reference and ending with confident the attention drawn to the presumably snarky hashtag a portion of the measure—pre“#progress.” She then added that serving the Qualcomm Stadium Faulconer “also lost minimum site for parkland and a possible wage referendum in June…but expansion of San Diego State Uninow I’m [ just] piling on.” versity in the future—is now more Perhaps some day we’ll hear likely to happen. from the folks at the San Diego “I’m not blaming anybody for Regional Chamber of Commerce not getting to victory—at the end and Lincoln Club of San Diego of the day the fault lies with us,” County, two conservative-leaning Briggs said. “But it’s sort of weird institutions whose political action because I’m relieved that I don’t committees pumped $100,000 actually have to carry water for a each into the defeat of Measure K bunch of total shitheads.” (even though city filings through He thinks a general hotel-tax late October only show $2,000 of hike in the future requiring just that $200,000 spent). a simple majority won’t happen Speaking of being outspent, “until the hoteliers are neutralactivist attorney Cory Briggs was ized. The hoteliers are Public sounding quite spry and reflective Enemy #1 toward infrastructure following the resounding defeat progress in this town. Propose of Measure D, the other hotel-tax- anything to benefit the public, hike ballot measure that most in they would shoot it down.” the media referred to as “the othMeanwhile, Briggs said he’s er stadium measure” even though hearing rumors that tourism offiit specifically prohibited the use cials will be coming forward next of public funds for a stadium. year with a tax proposal to expand “Here’s the reality,” Briggs the convention center. “They’re told Spin Cycle last week. “Your not afraid to raise the [hotel tax] colleagues in the media are fuck- for their own benefit,” he said. ing lazy. All they want to do is “Remember, I was one of the the salacious stuff. And let’s face negotiators who had to sit down it, the Chargers have been sala- with the hotel industry, the maycious. It takes up all the oxygen or’s surrogates, the convention in the room. Your colleagues who center surrogates,” Briggs said. didn’t get it decided to make this “We sat down in a spirit of coopa stadium initiative even though eration because everybody was it was crafted at a time when the saying at the time let’s do someChargers were going to Carson. thing that’s better for the public.”

It was done to protect taxpayers.

Added Briggs: “Kevin The fact that the Chargers were [Faulconer]’s not a leader. He’s a not opposed to it and considered figurehead. I’m totally relieved it a Plan B all of a sudden made it that I get to go back to doing what a Chargers proposal.

I do better, and that is stopping “We didn’t have enough money their bullshit.” to counter all of that free misrepresentation that the No on D peo- Spin Cycle appears every week.

Write to johnl@sdcitybeat.com. ple were getting from the media.”

November 16, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 5

CULTURE | VOICES

MINDA HONEY

AT THE

INTERSECTION

Did you ever think your country could break your heart?

E

lection night, I couldn’t take it, watching the states come in red. I went to bed at 10 p.m.

When I woke up to a phone full of text messages, I knew something had gone terribly wrong in the night. Hillary had lost. And for so many times since Trayvon Martin, I didn’t know what to say.

By 2013, we’d already secured a second-term for Obama. So, when George Zimmerman was acquitted, I learned the limitations of Hope. We hadn’t built a wall out of Hope that could protect us from the racists and hate-mongers on the other side.

Instead, we’d hung up a curtain of Hope. One that they could pull back to remind us they were still there; seething, waiting, plotting. They still had power. And their voices were still the ones that mattered.

I tried to hold that curtain in place. Drape myself in Hope that things were getting better. I moved back to liberal California for grad school. I un-friended anyone on Facebook that wasn’t forward-thinking.

I reveled in the perfection that is the First Family. But over and over again they drew back that curtain and reminded me they’d gone nowhere.

When we couldn’t get universal healthcare and what we did get was constantly under attack even though it was making a real difference in the lives of so many Americans. They reminded us.

When we couldn’t get gun legislation passed after 20 six-year-olds lost their lives in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

They reminded us.

When a federal jury acquitted the Bundys and their pals of charges from their most recent standoff in Oregon, while we watch as protestors are arrested at Standing Rock for trying to protect sacred land.

They reminded us.

When we couldn’t get police reform after Michael Brown and Ferguson. They reminded us. And they reminded us again after Eric Garner. After Sandra Bland. After Philando Castile. After little, sleeping Aiyana Jones. They reminded us until there were too many names to keep straight. Until that curtain had become threadbare.

I thought we could patch up that curtain of Hope with pantsuits and a Hillary win. I was wrong, but I didn’t know it until the next morning. That night, I went to dinner with my sister and her husband. I stalled long enough for my not yet three-month-old niece to wake up and then insisted on holding her. I like feeling the weight of her in my arms, the possibility and the promise of her and what lies ahead for

her in life. But I have to think of the heaviness of her too, of all that she will be burdened by in this life for simply being a woman of color.

The night Obama was elected to his first-term, I was in a bar in Huntington Beach with a girl I’m not even cool with anymore. Our eyes were on the TV and everyone else around us couldn’t care less, they were just trying to bro down in their Affliction tees. It’s not the over-the-top experience my friends in cities like New York and Chicago had. But still, I tucked it away like a photo in a heart-shaped locket. I called my granny and asked her, “Did you ever think?” I wanted to know if she ever thought she’d see a Black President in her lifetime.

I didn’t call her this year. I already knew what her answer would be, if I called and asked her, “Did you ever think your country could break your heart?”

She lived through segregation. The Civil Rights Movement. The assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Red-lining. Putting her children through busing in the South. And in 2016, she still gets up and goes to work everyday.

She knows what its like to wonder if the same white cashier who smiles in your face every week while they’re bagging your groceries cast a vote against your humanity. How hoods ain’t the only way to hide the hate in someone’s heart. She knows what its like to look at our world, then look at our children and know they deserve better. She knows what that smug expression looks like that creeps across a person’s face when they feel like they’ve put you and yours back in your place.

And thinking about all she knows was the only thing that made me believe you can move forward even when you can’t see a way forward. You have no choice but to. So, that’s what I did. I got up the next morning, I snatched down the last shreds of that fictional Hope curtain, and I went to work. Because I’ve been forced to see my country for what it is. And there aren’t going to be any days off for any of us that want Hope to become Change. Not for the next four years, not for whatever the outcome will be of the next wave of Supreme Court judges. Not for a lifetime. And we may not always see the progress we want, but it doesn’t matter. We have to keep getting up and keep going to work everyday just as we have been for generations.

I thought we could patch up that curtain of Hope with pantsuits and a Hillary win.

6 · San Diego CityBeat · November 16, 2016

At The Intersection appears monthly.

Write to rond@sdcitybeat.com

#SDCityBeat

UP FRONT | OPINION

EDWIN DECKER

SORDID

TALES

Singing the praises of Smoking Hot Divorce Sex

I

am so mad at my ex-wife. It has been about two years since we split and for all my efforts she refuses to have post-breakup sex with me. I mean, two years? What gives, woman!? Don’t you watch any television? If you did you would know that we were supposed to have a bunch of Smoking Hot Divorce Sex (SHDS) by now.

You know, friends, my world imploded the day my lady left me. However, as the varying facets of my existence fell into themselves—as the mountains of my bliss, the towers of my ego and the palaces of my finances all collapsed into their own footprints—the one thing that kept me going was the assurance that at least there would be some kickass breakup sex coming. Well, that and the extra closet space of course.

Alas, it seems that my ex, the one you have known as W. for all these years, doesn’t agree. Perhaps she doesn’t understand how badly people need closure, or how the range of post-matrimonial emotions can lead to some seriously soul-shuddering SHDS incidents. All you need to do is turn on the TV to know this is true, that upon the dissolution of a marriage you are supposed to have no less than three SHDS encounters.

The first should happen before you even part ways; the purpose being to soften the blow of the breakup and to hold you over, sexually, till the rebound comes. We’ve all seen the scenes on TV. We know how they go: HIM: [Standing at front door with packed bags and red eyes]. “Well, I guess this is goodbye.”

HER: [Trying not to sob]. “I guess it is.”

HIM: “I don’t suppose we could go upstairs and rub each other on the naughty parts for a bit? For old time’s sake?”

HER: [Rushing into his arms] “I thought you’d never ask!”

Then—while The Manhattans croon “Let’s just kiss and say goodbye” in the background—they grope and stagger their way to the nearest flat surface, the dining room table. The man clears the table with a sweep of his arm, lays her upon it gently, and tenderly saws her blouse open with an electric carving knife.

The second SHDS occurrence should come about five or six months later, when they happen to run into each other at a bar—one or both experiencing the end times of a rebound—and connect over margaritas and memories: The laughs. The shots. The arm-touches. The shots. The butt-touches. Then the stumbly walk to the nearest flat surface, the beach, where he will clear the seaweed and beer cans with the swipe of an arm and gently, softly—lovingly—tap that ass as David Lee Roth howls “Ain’t talkin’ ’bout love,” in the background.

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The third and last rendezvous should be a booty call. On TV it is usually initiated by the woman. Maybe she is drunk and lonely after a lame date. Maybe she’s been crying over a bottle of Grenache and a rerun of Crazy, Stupid Love. Or maybe she recently learned that an orangutan man-child will soon be sitting in the oval office with one hairy mitt on the launch button and the other on an intern’s pussy.

Whatever the reason, he comes running. She greets him at the door wearing nothing but a stethoscope. This is fine with him because he has ObamaCare. As the soundtrack warbles “Dr. Love” she whispers, “So what has brought you in to see me today?” and pulls him down on the nearest flat surface—the floor. However, after she finishes her, um, checkup, she feels as if something is off. “What are we doing?” she wonders as he puts on his shirt and pants. “This doesn’t seem right anymore,” he thinks, as he kisses her cheek and leaves. Time passes.

They don’t meet again for a year or two, when they bump into each other at the post office and exchange clumsy pleasantries: “Oh, you know, keeping busy” and/or “Everyone’s fine, how’s mom?” and/or “Can you believe the Chargers blew it again?”—just smalltalking their way through the awkwardness until one of them announces, “Oh, by the way, I’m getting married,” to which the other says, “That’s great!” and actually means it.

See now, my darling ex-wife, that is how divorce is done! And I know you are reading this column but did you also read the article in Women’s Health? “‘Breakup sex can help you process emotions and give you the time and connection to separate from your ex in a more compassionate way,’ said certified sex therapist Kat Van Kirk, Ph.D.” Yes, yes—see? This is a sex therapist talking! And her last name begins with “Van!” Clearly a sex therapist with a last name that begins with Van, certified and quoted in a women’s magazine must know what chicks need after splitsville. And the people on my TV seem to agree. You must “process” your emotions and “separate” from me compassionately.

This is how we wean off a long and mostly happy marriage. You’ve got to man up, woman! Get your ass over here so we can process and separate with our clothes off. Because the one good thing about breaking up is the breakup sex. Because human beings need closure. Because enduring the tribulations of divorce without having divorce fornication is like shattering your collarbone and returning from the hospital without a Vicodin scrip.

Sordid Tales appears every other week.

Write to edwin@sdcitybeat.com.

November 16, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 7

UP FRONT | FOOD

BY MICHAEL A. GARDINER

THE WORLD

FARE The spirit of tapas

T

apas are the classic small plates of Spain. According to one of several origin legends the tapas tradition began in Seville with a clever bartender who popped a slice of bread covered with a tasty morsel atop of a glass of sherry to keep the flies out. Hence the term “tapas.” His innovation, like that of so many, was copied. The result: an informal competition among “tapas bars” to see who could offer the best. While we don’t have many good tapas bars in San Diego, certainly not enough for a classic Spanish “tapas crawl,” perhaps the one that best exemplifies the tapas spirit is Cueva Bar (2123 Adams Ave.) in University Heights.

What has emerged from the original is more than just a free bite of food with your wine and a tradition of innovation, but also a classic repertoire of dishes and a certain look and feel of tapas bars. At Cueva the food isn’t free and there’s not much of that classic repertoire on offer, but that look and feel is there in spades as well as that tradition of innovation. While the reference point for Cueva is the tapas bar, it is not Spanish. Rather, chef-owner Oz Blackaller’s tapas at Cueva are more pan-Latin.

Take, for example, what might well be Cueva’s best dish: chicken and gorgonzola curry empanadas.

A light curry warmth suffuses the entire package surrounding the meaty, savory and moist chicken, but it is the gorgonzola that takes you by surprise.

At first it’s the stark contrast of that funky gorgonzola but then the curry flavor pulls it together. A dip in the accompanying chimichurri sauce and it all makes sense.

The beef chorizo empanada is nearly as good.

Warming chorizo spice adds a layer of interest to this version of one of the most prototypical of Argentina’s empanadas: the carne molida. Cueva’s version is hardly traditional but it manages to ring

8 · San Diego CityBeat · November 16, 2016

some of the same bells in a different way. The beef brisket empanada was not quite as good. Only that chimichurri lends it flavor.

Cueva’s torta azteca de Mole may not fit quite as well into the tapas idiom, but it is undoubtedly one of Cueva’s best dishes. It is Blackaller’s version of a classic pastel Azteca—the original tortilla pie—consisting of alternating layers of tortillas, fried chiles, cheese and chicken sauced with deep, evocative mole. But it may be a garnish—garlic and banana chip dust—that really take it over the top. Grounded, yet heady, it is an exciting dish.

One Cueva dish that would fit perfectly well in a Spanish tapas bar is the bacon-and-goat-cheesestuffed dates. Here the sweet and fatty savory of the classic combination of stuffed dates and bacon is balanced by the tangy strength of the goat cheese.

The parts are good but the whole is better.

MICHAEL A. GARDINER

Torta Azteca de mole Cuevas doesn’t offer the tapas top 10, nor a trendy “small-plates” or “shared-plates” menu.

It offers a tapas menu Blackaller’s way. They’re clearly not the same dishes you’d find in Seville, Barcelona, Madrid or San Sebastian. They’re what you’ll find in San Diego. But with the feel of the place, the spirit of creativity and generosity you’ll feel like you’re in Seville and that tapa is all that stands between the flies and your drink.

The World Fare appears weekly.

Write to michaelg@sdcitybeat.com.

#SDCityBeat

UP FRONT | FOOD

BY JAMES VERNETTE

DISHING IT

OUT

Reasons to be thankful

T

hanksgiving isn’t until next week, but I’m going to be too busy eating to write this column so I wanted to get this out of the way now.

San Diego’s food scene is like a young teenager: It still needs to mature, but has lots of promise and hope. There is room for growth, and I won’t be happy until every neighborhood, village or town in the county has its own brewpub or at least an all-ages venue where people can get high quality food at decent prices.

Still there are many reasons to be thankful for the San Diego food scene.

the growing popularity of sour beers is a godsend.

Tart and tangy, these beers go much better with food than the typical IPA. Lost Abbey’s Duck Duck Gueze is a refreshing sour beer that is especially good with fish and chips.

Lemon Season Thanksgiving often means that lemon season is coming soon to San Diego. If you have a lemon tree, or have friends with too many lemons, take them. Besides improving the taste of our shitty tap water, lemons can be used in desserts, sauces and homemade Limoncello. This year, I plan to pour a bunch of salt on mine and turn them into preserved lemons, a staple of Moroccan cuisine.

Vietnamese Noodle Salads I get that noodle shops are the current rage. On a cool November night they hit the spot. But this is a warm weather city. Just like I don’t drink IPAs SUZIES FARM / FLICKR when the temperature goes above 65 degrees, I don’t Farmer’s Markets go for noodle soups either.

San Diego’s climate means Instead, I go to a local pho that we are guaranteed some shop and order “bun,” a form of fresh vegetables all noodle salad made with year round. It is possible to vermicelli noodles, fresh eat produce without ever veggies, the slightly spicy resorting to a can, thanks to fish sauce dressing and the weekly Farmers Markets whatever grilled meat I’m held all over the county. craving. Saigon on El Cajon My favorite is the Sunday Boulevard in City Heights Hillcrest Farmers Market. has the gold standard of a Hillcrest Farmers Market All these markets also allow bun (perfect after a hot day artisans making specialty of Frisbee golf ). To me, bun chocolates, cheeses, pastries and quiches to have should be part of the San Diego diet as much as an outlet. Besides the weekly markets, Liberty carne asada burritos.

Public Market allows locals a 7-day-a-week chance to stock up on locally grown goodies, such 24-Hour Taco Shops as high-quality meats. No wonder there’s a crowd A true San Diegan has taco grease running at lunchtime. through the veins. Whether you go to Roberto’s, Gilberto’s, Alberto’s, Filberto’s, Hilberto’s, Beer Geeks Adalberto’s, or a non-berto’s-named taco shop, It wasn’t until San Diegans got serious about its these are the most egalitarian places in the city. beer that restaurants started getting serious about No matter your race, creed, color or religion, food. A new restaurant that doesn’t make some you’re probably spending many hours eating effort toward a curated craft beer list won’t survive at one of these wonderful establishments. A here. The same people that are picky about their message to San Francisco natives: A real carne beer are also particular about their food. asada burrito is meat, guac, pico de gallo—no beans and rice (that’s on the side).

Sour Beers For those of us who prefer to drink beer with food, Dishing It Out appears every other week.

#SDCityBeat

November 16, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 9

UP FRONT | DRINK

THE

BY ANDREW DYER

BEERDIST Best new brews of Beer Week

T

he San Diego Brewers Guild launched the eighth annual San Diego Beer Week on the Broadway Pier with its two-day Guildfest beer festival. Guildfest exemplified a rebirth of the true microbrewery. The resurgence of the little guys further galvanizes San Diego’s claim as the “Capital of Craft.” The future of the local industry is still bright despite nervousness over consolidation and encroachment from faux-craft brands. It is the ability of these smaller breweries to move and react to fickle changes in consumer demands that will keep them one step ahead of the big guys, and keep the customers coming back.

Member breweries usually bring their A-game to Guildfest and this year they did not disappoint. Some standout beers, in no particular order, are discussed below, and are my favorite beers from the festival: Little Miss Brewing (7949 Stromesa Court) Hoperation Overlord. This oatmeal IPA from one of San Diego’s newest breweries was an unexpected surprise. The beer poured more of a copper color than the pale straw of many San Diego IPAs but was not overly malty or bitter. It delivered a silky mouthfeel, full-hop flavor and suggests there may be more surprises in store from the upstart Miramar brewery.

Mikkeller Brewing (9368 Cabot Drive) Descendents Feel This Coffee IPA. I am thoroughly over the rock-band-brewery-collaboration beer trend. Bands like Bayside (ugh) and Deftones (who knew they were still a thing?) have not lent much to craft beer other than the stench of opportunistic marketers and desperation. But team up one of San Diego’s most exciting new breweries and the best punk band of all time (fight me) and Feel This Coffee IPA is what you get. The beer is more coffee than IPA but in just the right way.

Abnormal Beer Co. (16990 Via Tazon) All Of The Lights Imperial Milk Stout. Probably the most talked about beer of the festival was

10 · San Diego CityBeat · November 16, 2016

this yuuuuge Nutella flavored stout. Abnormal has made a splash with its sweet adjunct-heavy stouts and this one delivered. Hazelnut, cacao nibs and lactose work in harmony in this unforgettable beer. There are purists who dislike adding adjuncts to imperial stouts, for what I assume are religious reasons, but they are wrong. Head brewer Derek Gallanosa said All Of The Lights would be available in limited amounts at select taprooms before an online bottle sale sometime after Christmas.

ANDREW DYER

Pure Project (9030 Kenamar Drive #308) and Half Door Brewing (903 Island Ave.) Keep Amurka Dank IPA. Keep Amurka Dank is the latest entry in the ever-expanding, everimproving San Diego Northeast IPA movement.

This hazy, fruity beer is loaded with hop flavor and was another darling of the Guildfest crowds.

Northeast IPA. It’s been interesting to see the ever-evolving beers coming out of this East Village brewery. Half Door Brewing’s Daniel Drayne continues his exploration and improvement with his latest brew, the cleverly named “Northeast IPA.” The Beerdist appears every other week.

Write to andrewd@sdcitybeat.com

#SDCityBeat

SHORTlist

EVENTS

ART

the

THREE YOU HAVE TO SEE

COORDINATED BY

SETH COMBS

SAN DIEGO

1

SHOP, DROP AND ROLL

Halloween is over and the election is done, which can only mean that (oh, dear God!) it’s time for the holiday season and all the soul-sucking, spirit-crushing materialism that comes with it. Lucky for readers, they can bypass Black Friday for some events that’ll allow them to shop and feel pretty good about it at the same time.

CityBeat’s neighbors at North Park Main Street are celebrating Black Friday’s much cooler sibling Small Business Saturday (Nov. 26) with the inaugural Small Business Scavenger Hunt. From Saturday, Nov. 19, through Saturday, Nov. 26. Patrons can pick up scavenger hunt clue cards for $5 that describe 10 North Park businesses. The first person to collect the trinkets at these locations and bring them to the Main Street booth on Ray St. and University Ave. on Nov. 26 will win $200. Check out northparkmainstreet.com for pick-up locations and details.

Also this week, indie boutique Little Dame (littledameshop.com) will hold its first Dame Fest shopping event and party at the Sunset Temple

MISSION VALLEY

2 ALL THAT JAZZ

Although the holidays can be stressful, it’s nice to know we can go out and see some live music and get our minds off things. Thanksgiving fugitives and jazz lovers alike should hit up the 37th annual San Diego Jazz Fest. The fest is held from Wednesday, Nov. 23, to Sunday, Nov. 27, and features live performances from an eclectic array of bands and soloists, including locals Sue Palmer and her Motel Swing Orchestra, Kris Tokarski Quartet from New Orleans and Paolo Alderighi from Italy. Whether you prefer large concert rooms or more intimate “listening” rooms, the performances will take place at Town and Country Resort & Convention Center (500 Hotel Circle North). Times vary, but check sdjazzfest.org for more info. Tickets are $30 with free entrance for kids and military personnel.

COURTESY OF SAN DIEGO JAZZ FEST

space in North Park (3911 Kansas St.). Happening Thursday, Nov. 17, from 5 p.m. to midnight, the event will have more than a dozen unique vendors showing off their wares, as well as food, beer and live music.

That’s just the tip of the icicle. There are so many great alternatives to the mall in the coming weeks. There’s Record Store Day: Black FriLET’S FROLIC TOGETHER day on Nov. 25, with local shops offering exclusive music items (recordstoreday.com).

There’s the San Diego Made Holiday Market (sandiegomade. org) on Sunday, Dec. 4, at the Lafayette Hotel in North Park (2223 El Cajon Blvd.) with 50 local makers. And you can tie it all up with the Makers Arcade HoliMakers Arcade day Fair on Saturday, Dec. 10, at 11 a.m. at the Port Pavilion at Broadway Pier (1000 N. Harbor Dr.), which showcases hundreds of indie products (makersarcade.com).

Check these pages over the next few weeks for more events like these, but whatever you do, support the local economy. It feeds the soul and replenishes the spirit, and that’s what the holidays are all about.

POINT LOMA

3 DEAL YOURSELF IN

Men don’t talk about their health, particularly things like prostate cancer. To raise money and foster the conversation in a manly environment, there’s the fourth annual Movember Poker Tournament San Diego. Recall that Movember is the international nonprofit that raises awareness by having men grow mustaches during the month of November. The hairybut-not-scary charity poker tournament takes place at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens in Liberty Station (2816 Historic Decatur Road #116). All participants get a free Stone beer, and food will be available. Make it to the final table and vie for prizes like a weekend stay at Harrah’s Resort Southern California. After the tournament, there’s an after-party at Side Bar in downtown (526 Market St.). It all happens Wednesday, Nov. 16, from 6 to 9:30 p.m. $50 buy-in. Tickets at movemberpokersd.eventbrite.com CHRIS BRAKE

HSandow Birk: Depravities and Monuments at SDSU Downtown Gallery, 725 West Broadway, Downtown. This new exhibition from Birk features monumental prints and drawings from two series that address conditions and concerns of our contemporary global society. Opening from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17.

Free. art.sdsu.edu HSketchy Charity Art Show at Werewolf American Pub, 627 4th Ave., Gaslamp.

Over a dozen artists will contribute everything from sketches and paintings to film plates and prints, with proceeds going to the City of Hope Cancer Research Hospital. Opening from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Thursday, Nov. 17. Free. 619-234-0094, thewerewolf.net HPaperweight Biennale II at UCSD SME Building Gallery, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla. A series of small scale paperweights produced by the first year M.F.A. class at UC San Diego Visual Arts representing a current or past focus in their practice.

Opening from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18. Free. visarts.ucsd.edu The Artworks of John Lennon: Final Exhibition at Flower Hill Promenade, 2720 Via de la Valle, Del Mar. An exhibition of John Lennon’s artwork and lyrics that features over 120 serigraphs, signed lithographs and song lyrics by the legendary Beatles member. From 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18. Free. flowerhill.com The Endless Line at Fallbrook Library, 124 S. Mission Road, Fallbrook. West Coast Drawing presents a diverse collection that exhibits the pervasive qualities of the line. Opening from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18. Free. westcoastdrawing.com HAmerican and European Folk Art at Mingei International Museum, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park. This new exhibition explores nearly three centuries of American and European folk art from the Mingei’s collection. Featured items include quilts, whirligigs and weather vanes, as well baskets and ceramic vessels. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19.

Free-$10. 619-239-0003, mingei.org California Group at R.B. Stevenson Gallery, 7661 Girard Ave., Ste. 201, La Jolla. Californian artists will showcase new artist’s works in a variety of mediums. Artists include Sean Brannan, Frances McCormack, Richard Allen Morris and more. Opening from 5 to 8 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 19. Free. 858-459-3917, rbstevensongallery.com HFlat Earth at A Ship in the Woods, 3007 Felicita Road, Escondido. A group show that questions new scientific hypotheses, revisits obsolete theories, and looks to the possibility of pseudoscience becoming the standard model. Features artist in residence Shaun O’Dell. Opening from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19. $13. shipinthewoods.com The Five Elements at Monarch-Arredon Contemporary Art, 7629 Girard Avenue, A reception and presentation by sculptor Ira Reines as he presents his newest body of work. Opening from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19. Free. monarchfineart.com Melanjolly 2 at Basic, 410 10th Ave., Downtown. Thumbprint Gallery presents a one night fan art tribute to American film director, producer, artist, writer and animator Tim Burton. From 7 p.m. to midnight. Tuesday, Nov. 22. Free. 619-5318869, thumbprintgallerysd.com

BOOKS Ina Garten at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Downtown. The TV host and author of nine New York Times bestselling

Sue Palmer and Her Motel Swing Orchestra

#SDCityBeat

Movember Poker Tournament

H = CityBeat picks

cookbooks will be promoting her new book, Cooking for Jeffrey: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook with a storytelling performance and an audience Q&A. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16. $62. 619570-1100, warwicks.com Michael Connelly at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The bestselling thriller writer will discuss and sign his novel in the Bosch series, The Wrong Side of Goodbye. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17. Free. 858-454-0347, warwicks.com Shannon Messenger at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 5943 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100, Clairemont. The local author and creator of the Keeper of the Lost Cities middle grade series will sign and discuss the latest in the series, Lodestar. At 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17. Free. 858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com Julie Kagawa at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 5943 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100, Clairemont. The bestselling young adult author will sign The Worlds of the Iron Fey box set. At 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19. Free.

858-268-4747, mystgalaxy.com Jennifer Brody and Dan Wells at Mysterious Galaxy Book Store, 5943 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100, Clairemont. The two dystopian fiction authors will sign and discuss their respective new books, Return of the Continuums (Brody) and Extreme Makeover: Apocalypse Edition (Wells). At 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20. Free. 858-2684747, mystgalaxy.com Lucy Postins at Warwick’s Bookstore, 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla. The founder of the all-natural line of pet foods The Honest Kitchen will do a meet-and-greet to promote her new how-to book, Dog Obsessed. At noon. Sunday, Nov. 20. Free.

858-454-0347, warwicks.com

COMEDY HHarland Williams at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown.

The comedian and actor is best known for his sketch comedy routines, as well as his roles in Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary, Half Baked, and more. Thursday, Nov. 17. $16-$20. 619795-3858, americancomedyco.com HOld Town Improv Grand Opening at Old Town Improv Co., 2415 San Diego Ave. #103, Old Town. A complimentary evening of improv, food and music to celebrate the opening of the new space.

Performances from the OTIC Ensemble.

At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18. Free. 619663-6842, oldtownimprov.com HDoug Loves Movies at American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., Downtown. Doug Benson and friends do their traditional pre-Thanksgiving show and live recording of the popular podcast Doug Loves Movies. From 8 to 9:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 23. $18. 619-7953858, americancomedyco.com

DANCE Diego El Cigala: Master of Flamenco at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. The winner of multiple Latin Grammys has earned himself the title “the Sinatra of flamenco.” At 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19. $20-$65. 619-235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org

FOOD & DRINK HSan Diego Wine & Food Festival at various locations. Eat, drink and be merry at this multi-day festival, which includes tastings, classes, parties and more. See website for times, locations and admission costs. Various times.

Through Sunday, Nov. 20. Free-$325. sandiegowineclassic.com

EVENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

November 16, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 11

BOOKS: THE FLOATING LIBRARY The ghost in the glass

L

gloomy rooms made claustrophobic by Gorey’s manic crosshatching.

Much admired and widely appreciated, Gorey’s work was in high demand right up until the time of his death in 2000. In 2001, The New York Review of Books reprinted The Haunted Looking Glass for his legion of fans.

As for the stories, most were new to me despite the preponderance of well-known authors: Charles Dickens, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson and Wilkie Collins to name a few. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, ghost stories were a popular genre, especially in England where virtually all of these stories are set.

If you were a well-known writer in those days you could expect an editor to solicit you for a ghost story, and if you were a little known writer it was a good way to find an audience. It’s fascinating to see what these writers do with endless variations on basically the same story: a man/couple/family moves into a house scorned by the locals only to discover they are not the only inhabitants.

Right now the story of someone who wakes up to a reality out of step with his or her expectations feels hauntingly real.

ike a lot of people who love Halloween, I dedicated my pleasure reading last month to scary stories.

I read Shirley Jackson’s exquisite tale of psychological terror The Haunting of Hill House, Stephen Graham Jones’ contemporary take on the werewolf story Mongrels, and a tale of apocalyptic horror by Brian Allen Carr called, appropriately enough, The Last Horror Novel in the History of the World. I even started listening to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein on Audible, which isn’t particularly scary but has lots of moody brooding.

However, the book that delivered the most thrills and chills was a collection of ghost stories anthologized by none other than Edward Gorey. Chances are you are familiar with his tiny books and morbid illustrations, and if you are a fan of this column you know I hold his first book, The Unstrung Harp, in high regard.

What makes The Haunted Looking Glass, originally published in 1959, unique is that Gorey not only chose the stories but also provided a blackand-white illustration for each selection. They all have his trademark style: black ink on white pa per (with far more of the former than the latter),

figures swallowed up by their surroundings, and Write to jimr@sdcitybeat.com.

—Jim Ruland

EVENTS EVENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11 Craft at the Cove: Josh Carlos at George’s Level 2, 1250 Prospect St., La Jolla. Monthly craft cocktail series pairs an expert mixologist with a featured spirit to create an evening of inventive drinks. On this night: cocktails featuring Wild Turkey and Russell’s Reserve. From 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 21. Free. 858-4544244, georgesatthecove.com

HOLIDAY EVENTS Sip and Shop at Flower Hill Promenade at Flower Hill Promenade, 2720 Via De La Valle, Del Mar. Shops and restaurants stay open later for early holiday shoppers. Complimentary drinks and snacks provided by participating stores as well as live musical performances.

From 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16.

Free. 858-481-2904, flowerhill.com Fantasy on Ice at NTC at Liberty Station, 2640 Historic Decatur Road, Point Loma. The annual skating rink and park features holiday-related activities and performances, as well as handmade goods and artwork for sale. From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17. $120-$14. 619573-9300, fantasyonicesd.com Holiday Handmade Gift Faire at Tree of Life, 4870 Santa Monica Ave., Ocean Beach. Start holiday shopping early at this faire featuring unique gifts and curios designed and created locally. From noon to 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19. 619-223-3970, treeoflifestore.com Holiday Bazaar at Encinitas Community Center, 1140 Oakcrest Park Drive, Encinitas. The San Dieguito Art Guild presents its sixth annual Holiday Bazaar, offering hand-made items to the public such as paintings, jewelry, photography, glass, ceramics and more. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19. Free. sandieguitoartguild.com Holiday Street Fair at Downtown Encinitas, South Coast Hwy 101 and Encinitas Blvd., Encinitas. The 26th annual event features more than 450 vendor booths, as well as live music and other entertainment on three stages. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 20. Free. encinitas101.com

MUSIC Wednesdays@7 presents Anthony Burr at Conrad Prebys Music Center, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. UCSD Associate Chair and Associate Professor of Music Anthony Burr and guest composer Thomas Meadowcroft present an evening of musical collaborations. At 7 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 16. Free-$15.50. 858534-3448, musicweb.ucsd.edu HBeyond the Score: Dvorak Symphony No. 9 - Whose World? at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown.

This event features live actors, visual illustrations, and musical examples, to give you a multimedia experience that reveals stories found “inside” the score of music.

At 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18. $20-$72. 619235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org Michael Matsuno at UCSD Conrad Prebys Music Center, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. The UC San Diego graduate student and flutist will present his second DMA recital with a program that includes music by by Jason Eckardt, Milton Babbitt, Luciano Berio, and more. At 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18. Free. music.ucsd.edu HAll is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 at Veterans Museum & Memorial Center, 2115 Park Blvd., Balboa Park. This special collaborative performance will feature the men of SACRA/PROFANA, along with other noted local soloists, telling the World War I story of the Christmas Day

12 · San Diego CityBeat · November 16, 2016

Truce through music and dramatic readings. At 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20. $15-$30. 619-2392300, sacraprofana.org Reggae Fest at Del Mar Racetrack, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. Super chill festival headlined by everybody’s favorite Santa Barbara reggae-dub-rock band Iration. Through The Roots will open. At 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19. $6-$20. 858755-1141, dmtc.com Baroque Coffeehouse with Cristian Macelaru at Copley Symphony Hall, 750 B St., Downtown. The conductor will lead San Diego Symphony musicians through a program of baroque period work by Karim Al-Zand, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Bach. At 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20. $35.

619-235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org Angela Pruitt at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. An intimate performance by the jazz bassist as part of the Athenaeum’s mini-concerts series. At noon. Monday, Nov. 21. Free.

858-454-5872, ljathenaeum.org Art of Elan: Defining Place at San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park. The classical music organization celebrates its 10th anniversary with the second in a five-concert series that focuses on creative place-making and defining home in the 21st century. From 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22. $40-$50.

619-232-7931, sdmart.org UC San Diego Gospel Choir at Conrad Prebys Music Center, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. Director Ken Anderson brings together hundreds of voices to perform African American spirituals, blues, traditional songs and gospel. At 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22. Free-$15.50. 858-534-3448, musicweb.ucsd.edu HSan Diego Jazz Fest at Town & Country Hotel, 500 Hotel Circle N., Mission Valley. A gathering of dozens of jazz bands from all over the world representing a wide variety of styles: traditional jazz, Dixieland, ragtime, swing and rockabilly.

Various times. From Wednesday, Nov. 23 through Sunday, Nov. 27. Free-$30.

619-291-7131, sdjazzfest.org

PERFORMANCE Searching For The Write at Diversionary Theatre, 4545 Park Blvd., University Heights. A night of theatre classics and timeless hits tied together with original poetry and a three piece band. From 8 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18. $30. 619-2200097, diversionary.org The Elixir of Love at Smith Recital Hall - SDSU, 5500 Campanile Drive, College Area. SDSU Opera presents a two-act comic opera inspired by Grease which tries to make sense of love between two teenagers hiding behind masks and awash in socio-cultural influences. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18 through Sunday, Nov. 20. $10-$20. facebook.com/ events/672831126227145/ The Midnight Carnival at The Irenic, 3090 Polk Ave., North Park. Concoction of vintage-gothic burlesque circus and vaudeville noir with belly dance, hoop, fire dancing, burlesque, juggling, acrobatics, contortion, and more. At 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18 and Saturday, Nov. 19. $25-$50. midnightcarnival.brownpapertickets.com HAnnual Turkey Calling Show at UC San Diego Library, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. Scott Paulson leads an old school radio style show that teaches about the American turkey’s presence in European art, turkey calling techniques and more.

From noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 23. Free. 858-534-0133, library.ucsd.edu HToruk: The First Flight at Valley View Casino Center, 3500 Sports Arena Blvd., Midway. The new Cirque du Soleil show

#SDCityBeat

EVENTS COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND CATHARINE CLARK GALLERY, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

“Destruction from The Depravities of War” by Sandow Birk will be on view at Sandow Birk: Depravities & Monuments, a solo exhibition opening from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, at the SDSU Downtown Gallery (art.sdsu.edu). inspired by James Cameron’s Avatar uses a mix of visuals, puppetry and cinematic score to create a prequel to the movie. Various times. Wednesday, Nov. 23 through Sunday, Nov. 27. $27-$200. cirquedusoleil.com/toruk

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD HNow That’s What I Call Poetry Vol. 29 at Tiger! Tiger!, 3025 El Cajon Blvd., North Park. The monthly poetry showcase will feature Pepe Rojo, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Harold Abramowitz and more.

From 7:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20.

Free. tigertigertavern.blogspot.com The Red Poets Society at Kafe Sobaka Restoran Pomegranate, 2469 Broadway,

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Golden Hill. The poetry showcase features local writers and happens on the second and fourth Wednesday of every month. See website for info and featured writers. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 23. $5 suggested donation. 619-297-4007, facebook.com/sdredpoets/

SPECIAL EVENTS HMovember Poker Tournament San Diego at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens-Point Loma, 2816 Historic Decatur Rd. #116, Point Loma. The poker tournament offers participants Stone beer with buy-in. Benefits “Movember” charities for men’s health related to prostate cancer. From 5 to 9:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 16. $50. 619-2692100, movemberpokersd.eventbrite.com

HSpelling Bee for Grownups at Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., East Village.

The San Diego Press Club hosts this “word nerd” event. Peter Sokolowski, editor at large with Merriam-Webster, will be moderating and the judges are Grant Barrett (A Way with Words), and Public Library Director Misty Jones. From 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16. Free$10. 619-236-5800, libraryshopsd.org HDame Fest at Sunset Temple, 3911 Kansas St., North Park. Indie boutique Little Dame’s first anniversary event will have more than a dozen unique vendors showing off their wares, as well as food, beer and live music. From 5 p.m. to midnight. Thursday, Nov. 17. $5-$8. 619795-3630, littledameshop.com Night Stand Exhibit Pajama Party at Women’s Museum of California, 2730 Historic Decatur Road, Barracks 16, Point Loma. Patrons can wear their nicest pair of PJs, enjoy classic slumber party snacks and meet the artists of Night Stand: Bedside Imaginings by the Feminist Image Group. From 6 to 8 p.m.

Thursday, Nov. 17. Free. 619-233-7963, womensmuseumca.org Del Mar Antique Show & Sale at Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. Thousands of square feet of antiques, vintage collectibles and decorator items. Includes over 125 premier antique dealers from all over California and the Western United States. From 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18 and Saturday, Nov. 19, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20. $8. 858-755-1161, calendarshows.com Ho! Bollywood Party Diwali Night at Queen Bee’s, 3925 Ohio St., North Park.

A dance party to celebrate the Indian tradition of Diwali, the Festival of Lights.

Performers include DJ Ukeim and Bolly-

wood entertainer Prashant. From 9 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 18. $5-$10. prashantkakad.com Susan G. Komen San Diego 3-Day at Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. This three day, 60-mile walk, created by Susan G. Komen, supports research and grant program training, supporting large public health outreach programs for breast cancer. From 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11 through Sunday, Nov. 20. $70-$100. 858-7551161, the3day.org College Day at the Races at Del Mar Racetrack, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. College students can enjoy live DJ, college football games on a big screen, ample food, beverage specials, and, of course, horse racing. At 11 a.m.

Saturday, Nov. 19. Free. 858-755-1141, delmarracing.com National Beer Mile at Qualcomm Stadium, 9449 Friars Rd., Mission Valley. The one-mile course designed for fitness enthusiasts, social drinkers and party-goers is capped off by an after party featuring food, games and live music. From noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19. $35-$55. nationalbeermile.com HSmall Business Scavenger Hunt at various locations in North Park. The inaugural, week-long event inaugural where patrons can pick up scavenger hunt clue cards to pick up trinkets from 10 local businesses for a chance to win $200. See website for full details. Various times. Saturday, Nov. 19 through Saturday, Nov. 26. $5, northparkmainstreet.com

SPORTS Lucha Libre Mexican Wrestling at Turista Libre Meeting Spot, 727 E. San

Ysidro Blvd, Tijuana. Experience a Mexican wrestling match. Tickets include transport from the border, pre-fight tacos and beers, and a lucha libra souvenir. From 7 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 18. $40$60. 858-754-9406, turistalibre.com

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS David North: A Quarter Century of War at SDSU, Arts and Letters 101, 5500 Campanile Drive, College Area. Chairman of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org) will give a public lecture based on his recent collection of articles and lectures tracing the development of United States foreign policy. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16.

Free. iysse.com The Edible Gold Rush at Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., East Village. Culinary Historians of San Diego will explain how while gold brought a brief boom to California, the fruit industry brought lasting prosperity. From 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19. Free. 619-2365800, culinaryhistoriansofsandiego.com Changing Course: The History and Impact of the San Diego River at La Jolla Library, 7555 Draper Ave., La Jolla.

A discussion about the course, history, and impact of the San Diego River. From 10:30 a.m. to noon. Monday, Nov. 21.

Free. 858-552-1657, lajollalibrary.org Rosenblatt Lecture: Discoveries Behind Darwin’s Finches at Scripps Seaside Forum, 8510 Kennel Way, La Jolla.

Two esteemed scientists will talk about their continuing study of Darwin’s finches and further discoveries about the principle of natural selection. At 3 p.m. Monday, Nov. 21. Free. scripps.ucsd.edu

November 16, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 13

THEATER

JIM CARMODY

Krystina Alabado (left) and Daphne Rubin-Vega in Miss You Like Hell

Mother and child reunion

S

ixteen-year-old Olivia, an emotionally damaged girl, resides in an imaginary world in which she communicates her alienation via a blog—her inveterate readers are her “castaways.” Olivia is herself a castaway, to some degree of her own making. Into this troubled teen’s life bolts Beatriz, the errant Latino mother who Olivia feels abandoned her. Beatriz, in every way her daughter’s polar opposite, goads her into taking a get-to-know-you road trip across the country with her (there is an ulterior motive). So begins Quiara Alegria’s Miss You Like Hell.

This world-premiere musical is four years in the making at La Jolla Playhouse, where it was originally commissioned by Artistic Director Christopher Ashley. Just last February, it was workshopped as part of the Playhouse’s DNA New Work Series.

Now we have the finished product, with music and some of the lyrics by singer/songwriter Erin McKeown, direction by Lear deBessonet, and a Beatriz and Olivia portrayed by Daphne Rubin-Vega and Krystina Alabado respectively. Hudes’ stellar playwriting resume boasts both In the Heights and Water by the Spoonful, though narratively Miss You Like Hell is rather familiar territory.

The eye-opening, soul-revealing “road trip” is hardly a groundbreaking dramatic device; nor is the idea of the freespirited parent showing the painfully inward child how “to live” (see Miss You Like Hell’s “Lioness” number).

Rather, it is McKeown’s lyrical and frequently lovely score that empowers this production and its principal characters. This is her show, along with the engaging young Alabado, recently on Broadway in American Psycho. The latter’s rendering of the McKeown solos written for her are heart-rending, most of all during what could be considered this musical’s title tune which comes near the surprising finale.

Rubin-Vega’s convention-flouting character threatens to overpower not

14 · San Diego CityBeat · November 16, 2016

only Olivia but everyone else onstage.

That, and some odd sight gags (a dancing “Allen Ginsberg?”) find Miss You Like Hell trying too hard when, in the long run, it should rely on McKeown’s songcraft and the gradual rediscovery of a mother and daughter’s bond.

Miss You Like Hell runs through Dec. 4 at La Jolla Playhouse, UCSD campus. $25-$86; lajollaplayhouse.org.

—David L. Coddon

Theater reviews run weekly.

Write to davidc@sdcitybeat.com.

OPENING: The 1940’s Radio Hour: A family-friendly musical about a quaint New York radio station that’s about to air its last broadcast of holiday music. It opens Nov. 18 at the Patio Playhouse in Escondido. patioplayhouse.com The Dybbuk of Hannah and Sam’s Wedding: A broken vow blurs the line between the supernatural and the real world in this musical based on S. Ansky’s classic, The Dybbuk. Featuring original music from local Klezmer musician Yale Strom, it opens Nov. 23 at the Lyceum Theatre in the Gaslamp. sdrep.org

NOW PLAYING: November: David Mamet’s biting political comedy about an inept, outgoing U.S. president who has put the office up for sale. Directed by Steve Murdock, it runs through Nov. 19 at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista. onstageplayhouse.info Bad Seed: Maxwell Anderson’s thriller about a little girl who may have a dark side. Directed

by Kristen Fogle, it runs through Nov. 20 at Lamplighter’s Community Theatre in La Mesa. lamplighterslamesa.com Equivocation: A playwright named “Shagspeare” is forcibly commissioned by the King to write the definitive history of the Gunpowder Plot in Bill Cain’s acclaimed who-done-it. Directed by Deborah Gilmour Smyth, it runs through Nov. 20 at the Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado. lambsplayers.org

For full theater listings, visit “Theater” at sdcitybeat.com

#SDCityBeat

#SDCityBeat

November 16, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 15

TORREY BAILEY

CULTURE

Melissa Dueñas ELISSA DUEÑAS realizes she’s a little obsessive. The local DJ and self-proclaimed “vinyl junkie” becomes visibly emphatic when she starts to talk about her love of “lowrider oldies.”

“I made my first mixtapes waiting for certain songs to come on the radio and recording them on a tape recorder,” says Dueñas, referring to the long-running Sunday Night Oldies radio show hosted by Xavier the X-Man. “My dad loved oldies, my brother loved oldies too.

Definitely got my foundation there.”

For those unfamiliar with the genre of “lowrider oldies,” don’t worry. You’re not alone. There isn’t even a Wikipedia page to consult. “Lowrider oldies” are songs that mix and cross a variety of genres, but are mostly known for including elements of harmonic soul, doo-wop and even funk.

The lyrics, often delivered by pained and pining singers, deal in themes of love, devotion and the sadness that comes with loss.

The heyday of the genre was in the ’70s, when California lowrider car enthusiasts in the Chicanx community embraced the music as their preferred cruising soundtrack.

It’s likely most people have heard the more popular songs that were embraced by the lowrider community. Songs by The Temptations, Al Green and Smokey Robinson are easily recognizable, but it’s the deep cuts from artists such as Billy Stewart, Ralfi Pagan and the appropriately named El Chicano that blur the line between tracks considered “lowrider oldies” and ones just considered old-school.

For Dueñas, her love for the genre blossomed into a career. The 29-year-old DJs at

the long-running, monthly “Sleepwalking” into the project, she was able to track down club night at Til Two Club in City Heights, the creator of the East Side Story series, the and also hosts a podcast and online radio mysterious “Mr. B.” With help from a colshow called Lowrider Sundays. Her love league Dueñas scored an interview with Mr. of vinyl collecting eventually led her to B (at that point she knew little about the discover a multi-volume series of records man other than his street name and that he called East Side Story. The series of boot- was Caucasian). legged compilation records (12 volumes in “I knew that he was removed from the all) came out in the late ’70s and featured record community because, otherwise, he popular singles from the genre. would have been easier to find,” Dueñas says.

“When I initially saw them, I just thought What she found was that Mr. B (he they were just cool,” says Dueñas “The mu- doesn’t want people to know his real name sic on them is great for fear he’d be sued JOSE SALVADOR SANCHEZ but I always thought by artists he bootthe covers were cool, legged) started makbecause they have ing the compilations pictures of Chicaon eight-track tapes nos and lowriders (for you youngsters with these cool redout there, the eightand-green borders. track tape was a It wasn’t until later bulky predecessor when I thought there to the cassette tape), was something more but after selling out to this.” of them quickly he Her inquisitiverealized he could sell ness led her to begin Melissa Dueñas finds one of the original them on vinyl. UnEast Side Story photo locations. able to put them in the East Side Story Project (eastsidestostores, Dueñas found ryproject.com), a documented project devot- out that he mostly sold the records at L.A. ed to discovering and reporting the stories swap meets. behind the cover art and lowrider culture.

“I originally wanted to do this for an arThrough old-school instigative techniques, ticle for a zine or something, but it got to she was able to track down many of the a point where I thought, how can I even photo shoot locations, which she shared on write about this?” Dueñas says. “It’s so the Project’s Instagram and Facebook pages. dense and writing an article just wouldn’t Soon enough, more people began contacting do justice to the whole story. To keep going her to let her know that one of their family with it, it needed to be something more.”

That “something more” will be a webmembers was in one of the photos or that they recognized a location. Nine months series produced by Dueñas and L.A.-based

16 · San Diego CityBeat · November 16, 2016

filmmaker Gloria Morán (gmgmoran.com).

Together, they came up with the idea of a web series. For Morán, she says she was attracted to the project after Dueñas approached her for advice on how to make the project into a film.

“I saw what she was doing and I just thought, ‘Oh man, this is amazing,’” says Morán, from her home in the Echo Park neighborhood of L.A. “I was giving her an overall understanding of how to independently produce a documentary. All the things that go into it.”

Once Morán joined the project as a coproducer and co-director, they both decided on a more “episodic” format. They’ve set up a Kickstarter page where they hope to raise at least $15,000 (at the time this went to press, they’d raised a little over half of that amount) to cover expenses. Morán says what many people don’t take expenses in these types of projects into consideration—things like music licensing and permitting in the places where they want to conduct interviews.

Dueñas ultimately envisions a series that works in non-chronological chapters, focusing on particular stories within the East Side Story series. She likes the idea of 10 episodes, with public screenings and parties marking the release of each chapter. Right now, she wants to get through the first two episodes. She hopes to raise enough money on Kickstarter, but even if she doesn’t she’ll still try to do it.

Yeah, she’s a little obsessed.

“I have to do it, it’s one of those things now,” Dueñas says. “I’ve already invested so much time and energy into this, I have to finish it.”

#SDCityBeat

#SDCityBeat

November 16, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 17

CULTURE | ART

SEEN LOCAL FEAR AND LOATHING

L

ike many others facing the reality of a Trump presidency, Adam Powers is afraid. She’s afraid for herself, friends in the LGBTQ community and other minorities. Like many others, Powers was surprised at the results of the presidential election, but she was even more shocked at the instances of harassment and violence that took place afterward.

“If you spend any significant time on the Internet, you just learn to draw the correlation between things just happening and things that are trends,” says Powers, who works as a web developer and cognitive scientist. “I already knew that instances of harassment were going up in the days before the election. It just became clear that this was a trend and that it was only going to get worse.”

This is why Powers started the Tumblr-based website Why We’re Afraid, (whywereafraid.com) that lets victims of harassment post their experiences. The site has reached viral status and Powers says she got the idea for the website after seeing friends posting and reposting stories on social media. She started compiling a collection of screenshots of peo-

FINE LINES: SUNNY REY A semi-regular installment where arts editor Seth Combs reviews notable new poetry collections and chapbooks.

S

unny Rey isn’t interested in being a stereotypical poet. The subtitle of her second collection of poetry pretty much says it all: Poetry and Advice from a Nobody. As modest as that might sound, she’s quickly become a notable somebody on the local scene.

And while most poets would opt for a black-and-white picture of themselves looking stoic (perhaps sporting a turtleneck and a beret), the back cover of Rot (Garden Oak Press), instead, sports a picture of Rey, cocktail in hand, standing poolside in a bikini. Intentional or not, the picture is a nice “fuck you” to poetry purists who might scoff at the idea of a woman—and in Rey’s case, a single mother— looking oh-so-fabulous rather than oh-so-serious.

However one feels about Rey’s picture, she backs up this boldness with more than 70 poems that range from somber to sportive, of which most tackle topics such as love, singlehood, motherhood, sex, poverty and guilt. “I better feel and adjust it longer until it reveals all the spectrum of light in dust formed

18 · San Diego CityBeat · November 16, 2016

ple’s harassment stories and eventually put out a call for others to send anything they saw. The intention was to “collect them all in one spot” and in a “place where they’d feel comfortable submitting them.”

“It does seem like it’s becoming a place where people can come to be heard and I think that’s incredibly important,” says Powers, who is transexual.

Even after Trump’s call for his supporters to “stop it” when it comes to harassment, similar aggregator-type sites have popped up similar to Why We’re Afraid, and there’s a #ReportHate hashtag currently trending on Twitter. Powers says she feels no competitiveness when it comes to these.

She admits to not fully fact-checking the stories on the site, but says it feels best to take an “innocent until proven guilty” approach to the site.

“It’s important to believe people,” Powers says. “It’s important to believe the people who are saying there’s a problem. whywereafraid.com To trust the hurt person rather than assuming they have some ulterior motivation.”

She says she receives hate-mail daily from people who think the stories are fake, but is quick to rebuff the skeptics.

“What is more likely?” she asks. “That there’s a genuine increase in hatred following this election, or are we witnessing the most massively orchestrated secret disinformation campaign ever created on social media? Which is more likely?”

—Seth Combs

from the graves of tears/accumulated in time waiting to see clear,” she writes in “There’s Something in My Eye.” Titles such as “They Just Can’t” and “Sorta Sorry” imply a connectedness with millennial outlooks on intimacy and coupledom, as well as the app-based rules and web-ready interactivities that come with it.

What’s particularly interesting about Rey on the topic of love is how she weaves in an out of blunt real-talk and inner dialogues. A poem like “Text,” while stylistically simple on the surface, is conceptually bold in the way it uses both conversation and the narrator’s own thoughts to paint a larger picture. In the case of “Text,” it’s that envy that people often feel when seeing other couples who have the love that we want.

I have a suspicion that poetry snobs will take issue with Rey’s form and topics. It’s often informal and sometimes banal, but Rey is reaching for an audience, or rather a demographic, that doesn’t get bogged down in the rigid rules of rhythm and meter. She may describe herself as a “nobody,” but she’s a modern, relatable voice in what I like to call the “Pinterest Poetry” generation, with spurts of cathartic poignancy perfectly suited for IG posts and part-time everybodys.

—Seth Combs #SDCityBeat

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November 16, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 19

CULTURE | FILM

Elle

Nasty woman Paul Verhoeven and Isabelle Huppert team up for a deconstructed revenge film

by Glenn Heath Jr.

C

ommon human decency suggests that you Other strange couplings and power struggles shouldn’t kick someone when they’re down. emerge, mudding the core thriller narrative and turnElle takes place in an alternate reality where ing Elle into a chamber piece of spite. Michèle bethe opposite is true. Meek and injured people exist comes strangely attracted to her next-door neighbor to be manipulated, swatted around and ultimately Patrick (Laurent Lafitte), whose religious wife seems devoured. Yet director Paul Verhoeven manages to clueless to their flirtations. Vincent has shacked up uncover complicated layers to the carnivore’s de- with a verbally abusive pregnant woman who’s malight, some strange experiential purgatory in be- nipulated him into thinking he’s the father. These detween guilt and glee. One might describe these as lusions of grandeur are never played for laughs, but interstitial emotions, feelings caught between a rock contain darkly comic and absurd undertones. and hard place.

At the center of it all is Huppert, who gives Video game designer Michèle Leblanc (Isabelle Michèle a quiet Machiavellian ferocity that is exHuppert) finds herself playing the role of both preda- pressed through small facial expressions and gestor and prey after being raped by a masked man in her tures. Part chameleon, she often uses perceived kitchen. As opening credits play over black, classical feminine weaknesses to strike back at unthinking, music quickly segue to horrific control-hungry men. These skills sounds of her violent assault. Inare on full display during an awkstead of calling the police or going ward Christmas party where she ELLE to the hospital, she calmly cleans must navigate the passive (and Directed by Paul Verhoeven up broken dishes and jumps in not so passive) aggression from Starring Isabel Huppert, the bath. Submerged comfortably, multiple sides. Some brains can Laurent Lafitte, Charles Berling Michèle admires the growing red handle the stress, and others and Anne Consigny stain that taints a perfectly white can’t, as the celebration ends blanket of soapy bubbles. abruptly with one character colRated R Michèle doesn’t deny the lapsing of stroke. gravity of her traumatic experiElle, which opens Friday, Nov. ence, but it becomes apparent that she wants to dic- 11, daringly looks at one woman’s rigorous clandestate the terms of her recovery and revenge. True to tine war on societal contradictions. Michèle can’t form, it will be the last time anyone really surprises fathom living in a world where rigid morality and her. Initially, Elle unfolds like a feminist retribution repression aren’t challenged faithfully. During one fantasy with the victim being tormented by her ag- brazen conversation with friend and business partgressor through nasty messages and threats. But Ver- ner Anna (Anne Consigny) she says, “Shame is not a hoeven and screenwriter David Birke (adapting from strong enough emotion to stop us from doing things.”

Philippe Dijan’s source novel) subvert our expecta- What an amazing dare and a perfect thesis statement tions by tweaking the psychological dynamics at play. for Verhoeven, an enigmatic director who continues Accused of living a “sanitized life” by her sexu- to push the boundaries of genre salaciousness. ally promiscuous mother (Judith Magre), Michèle Michèle’s grey house cat ends up being her vinactually harbors an ocean of hidden desires that dictive spirit animal. The feline casually witnesses resurface post-assault. Many can be traced back to violence unfold and later pounces on a wounded the night five decades before when her religiously sparrow that’s just crashed into the kitchen window. devout father went on a killing spree in their neigh- There’s no room for mercy when it comes to the carborhood. Fittingly, Verhoeven often calls attention nal realities of instinctual pleasure. One of the most to the idea of “imprinting,” or the organic effect ex- rigorous and daring movies of the year, Elle provides a periences have on the brain. At one point, Michèle cinematic space for “nasty” women to be themselves. explains that she feels disconnected from her deadbeat son Vincent (Joans Bloquet) because he was Film reviews run weekly.

Write to glennh@sdcitybeat.com. breastfed by another woman as a newborn.

20 · San Diego CityBeat · November 16, 2016

#SDCityBeat

CULTURE | FILM

Tampopo

House special

F

“

irst contemplate the ramen.” An elderly culinary master imparts these sage words to his eager young disciple at the beginning of Jûzô Itami’s breakneck 1985 comedy Tampopo, being re-released thanks to Janus Films. Cooking and consuming good food demands patience, and it’s a lesson this “noodle western” will live by throughout.

When truck drivers Gorô (Tsutomu Yamazaki) and Gun (Ken Watanabe) get hungry on their way to Tokyo, they stop for a warm meal at a roadside ramen joint run

by Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto). They are met with a ramshackle interior, imposing thugs and lukewarm broth. Bad first impressions are a fact of life, but Itami sees them as inspiration for something new rather than the end of a story.

The two men decide to help Tampopo perfect her ramen recipe and open a successful restaurant. This includes militarystyle cooking drills, competitor reconnaissance and physical training. All the while, Itami’s focus drifts away to other stories that consider the intricate psychological overlap between food, passion food and technique.

Many of these vignettes are oddly compelling. Corporate copycats are suitably upstaged when their well-informed intern orders from a fancy seafood menu. Kôji Yakusho’s charming gangster in a white suit reinvents food foreplay with his mistress. The film’s most beautiful moment comes when a horde of foodie vagabonds sing their mentor a farewell song, capturing the insurmountable respect woven into student/teacher dynamics.

With its stylized irises and playfully exaggerated performances, Tampopo strikes the perfect balance between slapstick homage and tender throwback. Itami sees possibility in every corner of the frame, affectionately foraging for new faces and food to illuminate. There’s a spiritual quality to its Zen view of artistry, and something biblical about its epic downpours.

Tampopo, which opens Friday, Nov. 18, at the Ken Cinema, believes there are no shortcuts in art making. It takes a lot of experimentation and failure to become a master, whether you like it or not.

—Glenn Heath Jr.

#SDCityBeat

OPENING Bleed for This: America’s most unappealing actor Miles Teller headlines this sports biopic about world champion boxer Vinny Pazienza, who made an incredible comeback after being nearly fatally injured in a car accident.

Elle: In Paul Verhoeven’s latest brilliant subversion, a video game designer (Isabelle Huppert) dictates the terms of her recovery and revenge after being violently raped. Opens Friday, Nov. 18, at Angelika Carmel Mountain Cinemas.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: A prequel to the Harry Potter story, this fantasy follows an adventurous New York City writer who gets caught up in a community of wizards and witches.

Hieronymus Bosch: Touched by the Devil: Filmmaker Pieter van Huystee examines the life, work and fantastic imagery of 15th-century painter Hieronymus Bosch. Opens on Friday, Nov. 18 and screens through Thursday, Nov. 24 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Kiki, El Amor Se Hace: Five stories of love and lust unfold in this steamy sex comedy from Spain. Opens on Friday, Nov. 18 and screens through Thursday, Nov. 24 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

Nocturnal Animals: Tom Ford (A Single Man) directs this stylish thriller about an art gallery owner (Amy Adams) is tormented by the violent symbolism of a book written by her ex-husband (Jake Gyllenhaal).

Tampopo: Jûzô Itami’s’s brilliant 1985 “noodle western” follows a pair of truck drivers who school a roadside chef on how to make great ramen. Opens Friday, Nov. 18 and screens through Thursday, Nov. 24.

The Edge of Seventeen: A moody teenager (Hailee Steinfeld) finds high school even more unbearable after her best friend and brother begin dating.

Under the Shadow: In this Iranian thriller from director Babak Anvari, a woman believes supernatural forces cause her daughter to begin acting erratically after a missile strikes her Tehran apartment. Opens on Friday, Nov. 18, and screens through Thursday, Nov. 24 at Digital Gym Cinema in North Park.

ONE TIME ONLY Jerry Maguire: Tom Cruise plays an arrogant super agent who leaves his life of privilege behind when he meets a charming young woman (Renee Zellweger) with a precious little boy. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.

A Bigger Splash: Tilda Swinton, Mattias Schoenaerts, and Ralph Fiennes headline this drama about an aging rock star who gets a surprise visit from an old friend while vacationing in coastal Italy. Screens at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 18 and 19, at Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills.

For a complete listing of movies, visit “F ilm” on sdcitybeat.com.

November 16, 2016 • San Diego CityBeat · 21

MIA KIRBY

MUSIC

WARPAINT GET THEIR GROOVE BACK

GENRE-BUSTING BAND RELEASES POP-INFLUENCED ‘HEADS UP’

BY SCOTT MCDONALD

From left: Jenny Lee Lindberg, Stella Mozgawa, Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman ARPAINT DOESN’T CARE what you think. Over the course of 12-plus years, the Los Angeles quartet has worked to refine their genre-busting brand of moody, atmospheric rock without a care for much outside of their own creative impulses. Backed by the ride-or-die solidarity of a street gang and an occasional assist from studio magicians such as Flood and Nigel Goodrich, they’ve been able to do it all without compromise.

After taking most of 2015 off to work on individual projects, the foursome of Stella Mozgawa, Emily Kokal, Theresa Wayman and Jenny Lee Lindberg resurfaced earlier this year with Heads Up—their third fulllength release for Rough Trade Records.

Self-produced in conjunction with longtime friend and collaborator Jacob Bercovici, the album features some of Warpaint’s most pop-influenced material to date (“New Song,” “Heads Up,” “Whiteout”), but also some of their strongest. It additionally serves as the band’s first product of a recording process that didn’t involve all four members sitting in a room together.

Coupled with the year off to work on solo projects, the band’s newfound autonomy could have signaled unseen strife behind the scenes. But instead of being a sign of implosion or the subtext of division in the camp, drummer/keyboardist/programmer Mozgawa says it was simply a muchneeded step in the right direction.

“We’ve basically developed a new muscle,” she tells CityBeat by phone from her L.A. home. “The four of us coming up with ideas in a room together, talking about them and having to try every single one is very time consuming. I think we’ve transcended any of those old energy blockages. We just decided to make the album we wanted to hear, go with the method that was naturally occurring and deal with all the other shit later.”

That naturally occurring method meant that when Mozgawa was helping Lindberg record her now year-old solo album, switching gears to bang out a few ideas for Warpaint was encouraged. And while Kokal was recording with Saul Williams or Wayman was dividing her time between her own solo album and new trio BOSS, Mozgawa was free to record with Kurt Vile, Kim Gordon, Jagwar Ma or any other collaboration that helped her stay creatively engaged.

“You’re constantly learning things you’re going to use,” Mozgawa says. “It’s just this beautiful, swirly pattern of activity. Everything just feels a bit clearer now in terms of the way we do things.”

And that “shit” part Mozgawa says they

22 · San Diego CityBeat · November 16, 2016

had to deal with later? It isn’t really a shit part at all. Their new tasks are defined by a band working to implement the best of their divergent ideas and whole-heartedly participating in the constant process of refinement. With everyone working smarter and not harder, morale is up.

“Action breeds enthusiasm,” says Mozgawa. “And being involved in that world, perfecting your craft and working on it every day allows you to do more things. It allows you to be enthusiastic about what’s coming next because you’re honing skills and ideas.

And I don’t think it’s wise, unless you really, really need it, to take too much of a break.”

Warpaint’s new methodology also influenced the band’s decision to forego bringing in another bigname producer and instead turn to longtime band collaborator Bercovici to help them guide Heads Up. The L.A.-based producer and bass/ synth player in Julian Casablancas + The Voidz has a long history with the band. He produced their self-released 2008 debut EP, Exquisite Corpse, as well as a pair of David Bowie and Duran Duran covers that made their way onto compilation albums.

Although Mozgawa didn’t join the band until after Exquisite Corpse was done, she still considers Bercovici an integral part of their history.

“He’s a friend,” she says. “And creatively, he is the one who was the catalyst for Warpaint getting out of the garage and putting something to tape. That’s a really beautiful achievement. He really is like the fifth member of our band.”

It’s unlikely that the next time Warpaint releases new music they’ll be a quintet.

But then again, the two steadfast rules for this group are that creativity is encouraged and explored, and nothing is set in stone. As they move through their second decade together, adhering to those rules continues to bring positive returns and the kind of steadfast reinvestment that breeds longevity.

“The thing that I love so much about being in this band,” says Mozgawa, “is that we start from scratch every time. Even though the way it ends up may sound like something you’ve heard before, or is influenced by any number of different styles, ultimately, we just play our own individual interpretation of what our music should sound like in the moment.

“For better or worse, that’s what we do,” she adds. “It’s never ‘let’s make a punk record or let’s make a disco record.’

And to me, it’s so much cooler that way.

It’s pure.”

#SDCityBeat

#SDCityBeat

November 16, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 23

MUSIC

NOTES FROM THE SMOKING PATIO

The President-elect

MUSICIANS REACT TO THE 2016 ELECTION

A

lot of us are still in a state of shock after Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, but that doesn’t mean that people are remaining silent about it. I reached out to people in the local music community to get their reflections on the election and where we go from here.

Jordan Searls, The Bad Vibes: “Trump’s win is bringing people together who align with acceptance and love to take a stand against people of hate and separation. Nothing worth having comes easy and if we all do our part to put into the world what we want to see through art, music, activism, protest and sheer will out of respect for the human race, we will see some real results. We need to evolve before Trump aids in the sixth mass extinction of our planet.”

Jesse Cannon, Tall Can and Generik: “This country is on a path that isn’t good. The amount of attacks on minorities, gays and Muslims are already on the rise since [Trump] won and that is not cool nor is it acceptable to beat somebody up cause what they believe. I’m about as anti-Trump as one can be and have gotten into literal fights this year with [supporters]. I’m tired of it, but it’s only gonna get worse now that he is president. Nobody should stand behind a man who has riled up this many vile thoughts on how to treat our brothers and sisters. But we need to defend them now that he is president. Power to the people.”

symptom of an illness that spreads real quick when education is decimated and nobility becomes a luxury of the naive. We fucked up good. We’ll need a new plan. Something other than trashing a metropolitan area. We need to organize.”

Xavier Vasquez, filmmaker/projectionist: “There’s plenty of blame to go around. Some of us are to blame for getting too damned comfortable in the social media bubble where we shun and hide and unfriend anything or anyone that offends us or doesn’t jibe with our world view. To fix that we all need to step out of the busted bubble carcass and reach out to those who we once shunned in order to understand them. I’m not talking about tolerating, but understanding.”

Normandie Wilson: “Musicians and artists need to join together in the strength of community right now. We also need to allow ourselves time to grieve and rest to be able to do the work together. Also please look out for marginalized folks. Prioritize marginalized people. Let them know you are there.

Talk to your friends and relatives. Get intense if you have to. And put your own oxygen mask on before trying to help other people. Make sure you’re taking care of you. It’s not selfish. It’s survival.”

Dave Mead, Exasperation: “I’m like seriously the most positive person ever but this is fucked. We all have each other.”

Blanca Lucia, Dreams Made Flesh: “The divisive, negative, and even hateful language I’ve read Will Lerner, Shake Before Us: “Although I am on my Facebook feed saddens me. And I intend to disappointed in my country (and yes I do love Amerdo something positive about it, with help from local ica, but I’m still allowed to be disappointed, thank musicians/artists.” you very much), I’m proud of my state and happy to be here on the Left Coast. I will try to do what I can Hadi Fever, Stalins of Sound: “As a band with on a community and local level to make the world a one member who’s gay and another who’s an im- better one, and I’m elated to know I have some wonmigrant, we condemn the results and call out to any derful people around me who will join me in doing racists, homophobes, sexists, Islamophobes, xeno- the same.” phobes to refrain from buying our shit or going to our shows. We want to build a new rainbow coalition Douglas Thompson, Low and Be Told: “I swore that embraces diversity and resists bigotry.”

I’d never write a political song. (Currently writing a political song.)”

Brian Reilly, The Hiroshima Mockingbirds: “The nightmare we just bought isn’t anything but a

—Jeff Terich

24 · San Diego CityBeat · November 16, 2016

#SDCityBeat

MUSIC

JEFF TERICH

IF I WERE U A music insider’s weekly agenda WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16

PLAN A: Colleen Green, Mannequin Pussy @ The Hideout. Colleen Green’s music is simple, yet easy to like. Short, jangly indie pop songs about youthful angst and, in the words of Cypress Hill, getting toasted—nicely toasted. PLAN B: Nukem, Daemos, Downspell @ The Casbah. Local thrash metal outfit Nukem have an aggressive, fast and menacing approach to thrash that recalls early ’80s material from the likes of Slayer and Exodus. Which means they rule, naturally.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17

PLAN A: Vektor, Black Fast @ The Merrow. I recommend metal shows pretty regularly on this page, though I’m generally not super enthusiastic about the more technically minded metal bands. Vektor is an exception. They shred like motherfuckers, sure, but they write great songs, too.

PLAN B: Karl Blau, Lake, The Gift Machine @ Soda Bar. Washington’s Karl Blau has more than two decades of idiosyncratic indie pop under his belt. He’s not a household name but he rarely disappoints. BACKUP PLAN: Shana Falana, Le Chateau, Fake Tides @ The Hideout.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18

PLAN A: Tombs, Wolvhammer, Gravespell, Deep Sea Thunder Beast @ The Merrow. Tombs have grown into one of the best bands in metal in the modern era, infusing their dense black metal sound with dark, cosmic psychedelia. They’ll take you on a strange journey, for sure. PLAN B: Trash Talk, Antwon, Black Noise @ Soda Bar. Trash Talk shows tend to get a little crazy. The hardcore group is all about 90-second blasts of intensity. Paired with eclectic, unconventional hip-hop emcee Antwon, it’ll be nonstop entertainment.

BACKUP PLAN: William Fitzsimmons, Laura Burhenn @ The Casbah.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19

PLAN A: Neko Case, Eric Bachmann, Jon Rauhouse @ Poway Center for the Performing Arts. If you haven’t yet, go back and read Seth Combs’ feature on Neko Case, whose career is better than most singer/songwriters today, or in any era.

Her voice is incomparable, and you won’t believe how amazing it sounds live. PLAN B: Vanishing Life, Super Unison, No Sym-

#SDCityBeat

pathy @ The Hideout. Vanishing Life is the new band featuring Walter Schreifels of Quicksand and Rival Schools. That’s enough reason for me to recommend them, but their punchy punk songs are all the evidence you need. BACKUP PLAN: Lucius, The Cactus Blossoms @ Belly Up Tavern.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20

PLAN A: Take Over and Destroy, Fantasy Arcade, Bastardsect @ Soda Bar. Phoenix’s Take Over and Destroy are a hybrid of different styles, from classic heavy metal to dark, gothic post-punk. It’s a little bit like being transported to underground music in 1981, yet with modern production. Basically, my dream band. PLAN B: Screaming Lord Stax and the Savages, The Gargoyles, DJ Tony the Tyger @ The Casbah. One of the more obscure tribute bands in town, Screaming Lord Stax and the Savages comprises members of The Loons and the Schizophonics with a set full of songs by theatrical psych-rocker Screaming Lord Sutch. Do a Vektor little homework beforehand and then come witness the madness. BACKUP PLAN: Fairy Bones, Paper Foxes, Bosswitch @ The Merrow.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21

PLAN A: Zombie Surf Camp, Jason Hanna and the Bullfighters, Millionaire Beach Bums @ The Casbah. Halloween may be a few weeks behind us, but you can enjoy a zombie-themed surf rock band any time of the year. Zombie Surf Camp, in particular, is just the kind of fun you’ll need on a Monday night.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22

PLAN A: Warpaint, Goldensuns, Vs Colour @ Observatory North Park. Read Scott McDonald’s feature this week for more on this Los Angeles band. They blend dream pop gloominess with dance-floor-friendly beats that add up to a heady, fun and sometimes otherworldly combination. PLAN B: Red Fang, Torche, Whores, Bosswitch @ The Casbah. As far as heavy music goes, it doesn’t get more fun than Red Fang. The Portland group plays loud, certainly, but with hooks you can hoist your PBRs to (and later make a suit of armor out of the can, like they do in their “Prehistoric Dog” video).

BACKUP PLAN: Radkey, The Fame Riot, San Pedro El Cortez @ Soda Bar.

November 16, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 25

MUSIC

CONCERTS HOT! NEW! FRESH!

Barrington Levy (Observatory, 12/9), Rebelution (Observatory, 12/31), Warren G (Music Box, 1/6), Dawes (BUT, 1/10), Daniela Andrade (Irenic, 1/19), Lydia Loveless (Soda Bar, 1/27), Devendra Banhart (Observatory, 1/28), Juicy J (HOB, 2/8), The Lemon Twigs (Casbah, 2/9), Reel Big Fish, Anti Flag (HOB, 2/17), Slim Cessna’s Auto Club (Soda Bar, 2/17), Sinkane (Soda Bar, 3/5), James Chance and the Contortions (Hideout, 3/18), Umphrey’s McGee (Observatory, 3/19), Ladyhawke (Casbah, 3/31), Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness (HOB, 5/5), Robin Trower (HOB, 5/19).

GET YER TICKETS Neko Case (Poway OnStage, 11/19), Method Man and Redman (Observatory, 11/21), Warpaint (Observatory, 11/22), Red Fang (Casbah, 11/22), Hirie (Music Box, 11/25), Kool Keith (HOB, 11/27), Porter Robinson, Madeon (Valley View Casino Center, 11/29), Peter Murphy (Observatory, 11/29), Lee Fields (BUT, 11/30), Daughter (Observatory, 12/1), Living Legends (Observatory, 12/2), Queen Latifah (Harrah’s, 12/2), Helmet (Casbah, 12/2), Two Door Cinema Club (Harrah’s Resort, 12/3), Amy Schumer (Valley View Casino Center, 12/3), Miike Snow (Observatory, 12/5), The Album Leaf (Irenic, 12/9), Pylon Reenactment Society (Hideout, 12/10), Mr. Carmack (Observatory, 12/10), Pere Ubu (Casbah,

12/10), Jonathan Richman (BUT, 12/12), X (Casbah, 12/15-18), Gucci Mane (Observatory, 12/23), Henry Rollins (Observatory, 12/27), Citizen Cope (Observatory, 12/28), Mannheim Steamroller (Civic Theatre, 12/28), OFF! (Casbah, 12/28), Donovon Frankenreiter (BUT, 12/28-29), Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven (Music Box, 12/29), Brian Setzer Orchestra (BUT, 12/31), The Donkeys (Soda Bar, 12/31), Sharon Jones and the DapKings (BUT, 1/1-2), The Devil Makes Three (Observatory, 1/4-5), Pepe Aguilar (Civic Theatre, 1/6), Beat Farmers Hootenanny (BUT, 1/7), Ozomatli (Music Box, 1/13), Lucero (BUT, 1/15), Marching Church (The Hideout, 1/20), Chevelle (HOB, 1/21), Lemuria (Hideout, 1/26), Hamilton Leithauser (Casbah, 1/28), Blind Boys of Alabama (BUT, 1/29), Run the Jewels (Observatory, 1/30), Mike Doughty (BUT, 2/1), Alcest (Brick

by Brick, 2/8), Austra, The Range (Casbah, 2/8), D.R.A.M. (Music Box, 2/9), David Duchovny (Music Box, 2/12), Adam Ant (Observatory, 2/18), Circa Survive (HOB, 2/21-2/22), Priests (Che Café, 2/22), Tennis (The Irenic, 2/22), Moon Duo (Casbah, 2/25), Steve Poltz (BUT, 2/24-25), Bon Jovi (Viejas Arena, 3/5), Japandroids (Music Box, 3/11), Tinariwen, Dengue Fever (BUT, 3/30), Passenger (HOB, 4/2), The Damned (HOB, 4/7), Green Day (Valley View Casino Center, 4/8), Reverend Horton Heat (BUT, 4/20), The Wedding Present (Casbah, 4/30), Brian Wilson (Civic Theatre, 5/24), The Primitives (Hideout, 6/6), Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Civic Theatre, 6/26), Coldplay (Qualcomm Stadium, 10/8).

NOVEMBER WEDNESDAY, NOV. 16 July Talk at The Casbah. Rae Srem-

26 · San Diego CityBeat · November 16, 2016

murd at Observatory North Park (sold out). Nukem at The Casbah. Copeland at The Irenic.

THURSDAY, NOV. 17 Pennywise at House of Blues (sold out).

Vektor at The Merrow. Kinnie Dye and Mango Melody at Belly Up Tavern. Nekromantix at Brick by Brick.

FRIDAY, NOV. 18 hed p.e. at The Hideout. Trash Talk, Antwon at Soda Bar. William Fitzsimmons at The Casbah. Tombs at The Merrow. Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band at Humphreys by the Bay (sold out).

SATURDAY, NOV. 19 Neko Case at Poway OnStage. Lucius at Belly Up Tavern. Lukas Graham at House of Blues. Gogol Bordello at Observatory North Park (sold out). Slow Club at The Casbah.

SUNDAY, NOV. 20 John Mayall at Belly Up Tavern.

Screaming Lord Stax and the Savages at The Casbah.

MONDAY, NOV. 21 Method Man and Redman at Observatory North Park. Zombie Surf Camp at The Casbah.

TUESDAY, NOV. 22 Red Fang at The Casbah. Warpaint at Observatory North Park.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 23 Cash’d Out at Belly Up.

FRIDAY, NOV. 25 Chris Isaak at Belly Up. Yelawolf at Observatory North Park. Hirie at Music Box. Mother Hips at The Casbah. Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe at Belly Up Tavern.

SATURDAY, NOV. 26 The Interrupters at The Irenic. Nik Turner’s Hawkwind at Brick by Brick.

Mother Hips at The Casbah.

SUNDAY, NOV. 27 Kool Keith at House of Blues. Taylor Williamson at Belly Up Tavern. Hot Chip DJ set at The Casbah. Jai Wolf at Observatory North Park.

MONDAY, NOV. 28 Young Thug at Observatory North Park.

AJ Froman at The Casbah.

TUESDAY, NOV. 29 Arc Iris at Soda Bar. Peter Murphy at Observatory North Park. The Fink Bombs at The Casbah.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 30 Lee Fields at Belly Up Tavern. Seu Jorge at Balboa Theatre (sold out).

Doyle Bramhall II at The Casbah.

DECEMBER THURSDAY, DEC. 1 The Widows at The Casbah. Besnard Lakes at Soda Bar. Daughter at Observatory North Park.

Park. Terry Malts at The Hideout.

Queen Latifah at Harrah’s Resort. Guttermouth at Soda Bar. Helmet at The Casbah.

SATURDAY, DEC. 3 Home Free at Poway OnStage. Rufus Du Sol at Music Box. Amy Schumer at Valley View Casino Center. Pink Martini at California Center for the Arts. Two Door Cinema Club at Harrah’s Resort.

Agent Orange at The Casbah. Gonn at The Hideout.

SUNDAY, DEC. 4 Haley Bonar at The Casbah.

MONDAY, DEC. 5 Miike Snow at Observatory North Park.

TUESDAY, DEC. 6 The Slackers at The Casbah. Alex Cameron at Soda Bar.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 7 Muuy Biien at Soda Bar. CRX at The Casbah. The Cherries Jubilee at California Center for the Arts.

THURSDAY, DEC. 8 Anthony Raneri at Soda Bar.

FRIDAY, DEC. 9 The Album Leaf at The Irenic. Jackie Greene at Belly Up Tavern. Tijuana Panthers at Soda Bar. Merchandise at The Hideout. Barrington Levy at Observatory North Park.

FRIDAY, DEC. 2 Living Legends at Observatory North

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 27

#SDCityBeat

MUSIC SATURDAY, DEC. 10 Benjamin Francis Leftwich at Soda Bar. Jonny Lang at Belly Up Tavern. Pylon Reenactment Society at The Hideout. Pere Ubu at The Casbah.

SUNDAY, DEC. 11 SIMS at The Casbah. Chasms at The Hideout. Sorority Noise at Che Café.

MONDAY, DEC. 12 Jonathan Richman at Belly Up Tavern.

TUESDAY, DEC. 13 The Shelters at The Casbah.

THURSDAY, DEC. 15 Royal Teeth at Soda Bar. Sego at The Hideout. X at The Casbah.

FRIDAY, DEC. 16 X at The Casbah. Eukaryst at Soda Bar.

SATURDAY, DEC. 17 X at The Casbah.

SPOTLIGHT

SUNDAY, DEC. 18

During this past election, many asked what era the phrase “Make America Great Again” was referring to, and the answer is unquestionably and without doubt 1988, the year hair metalers Queensrÿche released Operation: Mindcrime. Back then, normal society just wasn’t ready for the scorching guitars and Dio-esque wailing—all wrapped up in high concept—but now we are. Bust out that all-denim Canadian tuxedo, untame that mullet and don those sporty Oakleys, because America just got great again.

Queensrÿche plays Friday, Nov. 18, at House of Blues.

#SDCityBeat

—Ryan Bradford

X at The Casbah. ‘For the Sender’ Holiday Show at Belly Up Tavern. Dave Koz at Balboa Theatre. Unwritten Law at House of Blues.

MONDAY, DEC. 19 Anuhea at Belly Up Tavern.

rCLUBSr

710 Beach Club, 710 Garnet Ave., San

Diego. Pacific Beach. Fri: Approaching Fiction, Brave Native, Poppy’s Field. Sat: Skanks Roots Project, Boostive. Tue: Carlo’s Bandana.

Air Conditioned Lounge, 4673 30th St., San Diego. Normal Heights. Wed: ‘Confidential’ w/ DJs Zack & Simon. Thu: ‘Libertine’ w/ DJs Jon Wesley, 1979. Sat: ‘Juicy’ w/ Mike Czech. Sun: ‘Chvrch’ w/ DJ Karma.

American Comedy Co., 818 B Sixth Ave., San Diego. Downtown. Thu: Harland Williams. Fri: Harland Williams. Sat: Harland Williams. Sun: Harland Williams.

The Bancroft, 9143 Campo Rd., Spring Valley. Thu: ‘Darkwave Garden’. Fri: Dan Martin. Sat: Shane Secor.

Bang Bang, 526 Market St., San Diego.

Downtown. Thu: Soul Clap. Fri: Jeremy Olander. Sat: Mat.Joe. Bar Pink, 3829 30th St., San Diego.

North Park. Wed: ‘Wreckord Mania’ w/ DJ @Large. Thu: DJ Ikah Love. Fri: Normandie Wilson and the Joyelles, SABA, Mittens. Sat: ‘Neon Beat’. Sun: ‘Rat Sabbath’. Mon: ‘Motown on Monday’. Tue: ‘Tiki Tuesday’ w/ DJ Marshall Islands.

Basic, 410 10th Ave., San Diego. Downtown. Tue: Melanjolly 2.

Beaumont’s, 5662 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla. Thu: Cougar Canyon Band. Fri: Jimmy Lewis Band. Sat: Sofa King Bueno.

Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. Wed: The Lucy Ring, Elektric Voodoo, Stripes & Lines. Thu: Veronica May and The To Do List, Kinnie Dye, Mango Melody. Fri: Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers, Los Beautiful Beast.

Sun: John Mayall. Mon: Puddles Pity Party.

Black Cat Bar, 4246 University Ave., San Diego. City Heights. Fri: Joey Harris

and the Mentals, Where’s Willis. Sat: The Phantoms, Fanny and the Attaboys.

Blonde, 1808 W. Washington Street, San Diego. Wed: ‘Dance Klassique’ w/ Tokita, Aw$um. Sat: ‘Through Being Cool’ w/ DJs Derek Hubbard, Steven Oira.

Brass Rail, 3796 Fifth Ave., San Diego.

Hillcrest. Fri: ‘Hip Hop Fridayz’. Sat: ‘Sabado en Fuego’ w/ DJs XP, KA, K-Swift.

Sun: The Ramones Revisited. Mon: ‘Manic Monday’ w/ DJ Junior the Disco Punk.

Cafe Sevilla, 353 Fifth Ave., San Diego.

Downtown. Sat: Flamenco Dinner Show.

Sun: Buena Vista Sundays.

The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., San Diego. Midtown. Wed: Nukem, Daemos, Downspell. Thu: David Ramirez. Fri: William Fitzsimmons, Laura Burhenn. Sat: Lucius, The Cactus Blossoms, Night Beats, Mystery Lights, Warbly Jets. Sun: Screaming Lord Stax and the Savages, The Gargoyles, DJ Tony the Tyger. Tue: Red Fang, Torche, Whores, Bosswitch.

Comedy Palace, 8878 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., San Diego. Clairemont. Fri: The Trifecta of Improv.

Dirk’s Nightclub, 7662 Broadway, Lemon Grove. Lemon Grove. Fri: Serious Guise. Sat: FX5.

Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive, San Diego. Mission Bay. Fri: Fred Benedetti and George Svoboda. Sat: Black Mambo.

F6ix, 526 F St., San Diego. Downtown.

Fri: DJ P-Jay. Sat: DJ Barone.

Fluxx, 500 Fourth Ave., San Diego.

Downtown. Fri: Miles. Sat: Twista.

The Hideout, 3519 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego. City Heights. Wed: Colleen Green, Mannequin Pussy. Thu: Shana Falana,

MUSIC CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

November 16, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 27

MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27 Le Chateau, Fake Tides. Fri: hed p.e., Reason to Rebel, 1001. Sat: Vanishing Life, Super Unison, No Sympathy.

House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., San Diego. Downtown. Wed: LANY, Transviolet. Thu: Pennywise, Strung Out, Unwritten Law, Runaway Kids (sold out). Fri: Queensryche, Armored Saint, Midnight Eterna. Sat: Lukas Graham, Hein Cooper. Sun: Cherub, Boo Seeka. Tue: Mon Laferte, Jackie Mendez.

Humphrey’s Backstage Live, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, San Diego. Point Loma. Wed: Kimberly Jackson. Thu: Jerome Dawson. Fri: Detroit Underground, The Reflectors. Sat: Funk’s Most Wanted, Michele Lundeen. Sun: Patrick Yandall, Mercedes Moore. Mon: Mercedes Moore. Tue: Bayou Brothers.

Lestat’s West, 3341 Adams Ave., Normal Heights, San Diego. Normal Heights.

Wed: Sarah Simmons. Thu: John Craig, Erin Chapin. Sat: Josh Damigo, Trish Naval. Sun: Veronica May and the To Do List, Lee Coulter, SIR. The Loft @ UCSD, Price Center East, La Jolla. Wed: RKCB, Opia. Thu: Christian Sands. Sat: Charlie Chavez y su Afrotruko.

Mc P’s Irish Pub, 1107 Orange Ave., Coronado. Wed: 3 Guys Will Move U. Thu: Ron’s Trio. Fri: Pat Ellis & Blue Frog Band. Tue: Glen Smith.

The Merrow, 1271 University Ave., San Diego. Hillcrest. Wed: TRGDN, Joy Oladokun, Andross. Thu: Vektor, Black Fast.

Fri: Tombs, Wolvhammer, Gravespell, Deep Sea Thunder Beast. Sat: Hell on Heels Burlesque. Sun: Fairy Bones, Paper Foxes, Bosswitch.

The Irenic, 3090 Polk Ave., San Diego.

North Park. Fri: The Midnight Carnival.

Sat: The Midnight Carnival.

Mother’s Saloon, 2228 Bacon Street, San Diego. Thu: DJ Dub B. Fri: ‘Pushin Rope’. Sat: The Homesick Hitchers.

Java Joe’s Normal Heights, 3536 Adams Ave., San Diego. Normal Heights.

Thu: Gregory Page. Fri: Nina Francis, Lady Rogo, Heather Nation. Sun: Noelle and Gonzalo, Golden Hour, Gaby Aparicio.

Music Box, 1337 India St., San Diego.

Little Italy. Thu: Todos tus Muertos, Fayuca, SM Familia. Fri: Stepping Feet. Sat: Moon Hooch, Honeycomb.

JP’s Pub, 10436 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., San Diego. Clairemont. Fri: Blown Fuse.

Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd., San Diego. Midtown. Thu: ‘Acid Varsity’. Fri: Sapient. Sat: ‘Dragon Lounge’.

Nate’s Garden Grill, 3120 Euclid Ave., San Diego. City Heights. Sat: Robin Henkel.

Numbers, 3811 Park Blvd., San Diego.

Hillcrest. Thu: ‘Tagged’. Fri: ‘Uncut’.

Sun: ‘R&B Divas’.

Kensington Club, 4079 Adams Ave., San Diego. Kensington. Fri: Love Ethic, Sights and Sages, Little Heroine, Hand of Gavrilo.

The Office, 3936 30th St., San Diego.

North Park. Wed: ‘Dashboard Confessional Tribute’. Sun: ‘Uptown Top Ranking’. Mon: ‘Metal Monday’ w/ Cutwater Spirits. Tue: ‘Trapped’.

Ki’s Restaurant., 2591 South Coast Highway 101, Cardiff-by-the-Sea. Fri: Robin Henkel & Billy Watson.

OMNIA Nightclub, 454 6th Ave, San Diego. Thu: Henri PFR + Addal. Fri: Carnage. Sat: Vice.

28 · San Diego CityBeat · November 16, 2016

Parq, 615 Broadway, San Diego. Fri: ERock Birthday Celebration. Sat: Konflikt.

Patricks Gaslamp, 428 F St., San Diego. Downtown. Wed: The Upshots.

Thu: The Bill Magee Blues Band. Fri: Ron’s Garage. Sat: Mystique Element of Soul. Sun: The Toga Party Band. Mon: Len Rainey’s Midnight Players.

Rich’s, 1051 University Ave., San Diego.

Hillcrest. Wed: DJ Kiki. Fri: DJs Drew G, Will Z. Sat: DJs Hektik, Luke Allen. Sun: DJs Casey Alva, Hektik.

Riviera Supper Club, 7777 University Ave., La Mesa. La Mesa. Wed: ‘Boss Jazz’ w/ Jason Hanna. Thu: Man From Tuesday. Fri: The Darling Brothers. Sat: Rip Carson.

Rosie O’Grady’s, 3402 Adams Ave., San Diego. Normal Heights. Sat: Pushin Rope.

Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego. City Heights. Wed: Smokey Brights, Small Culture, The Candlelights. Thu: Karl Blau, Lake, The Gift Machine. Fri: Trash Talk, Antwon, Black Noise. Sat: Slow Club, Red Pony Clock. Sun: Take Over and Destroy, Fantasy Arcade, Bastardsect. Mon: New Language. Tue: Radkey, The Fame Riot, San Pedro El Cortez.

SOMA, 3350 Sports Arena Blvd., San Diego. Midway. Fri: Watsky, Witt Lowry, Daye Jack, Chukwudi Hodge. Sat: With Age, Refuse, Taliband, Head Change, The Dangerfield, Ignant Benches.

Til-Two Club, 4746 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego. City Heights. Thu: The Bassics, The Kabbs, The Mad Doctors, Weird Night. Fri: ‘80s Night’ w/ DJs Viejo Lowbo, Latin Lovers. Sat: Jason Lee and the R.I.P. Tides, Fake Tides.

Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa St., San Diego. Bay

SPOTLIGHT Pennywise has never been a smart band. The political rhetoric that fills so much of their cookie-cutter songs is like listening to an 8th grader give a lecture on subversion. But Pennywise fans won’t go to this show to engage with complex political ideas; they’ll go to drink, pull their flat-brimmed hats down and “Whoa whoa whoa” to “Bro Hymn.” And there’s nothing wrong with that. The legendary punk band is performing their 1995 album About Time in full, but don’t worry: they’ll undoubtedly play their bro anthem.

Pennywise plays on Thursday, Nov. 17, at House of Blues.

Park. Thu: Mercedes Moore. Fri: Funk’s Most Wanted. Sat: The Red Elvises.

Tower Bar, 4757 University Ave., San Diego. City Heights. Fri: Midnight Track, Roman Watchdogs, Punch Card. Sat: The Paper Hearts, Transistor, Ex-Gentlemen, Dead on the Wire.

Werewolf American Pub, 627 4th Ave., San Diego. Gaslamp. Thu: Sketchy Charity Art Show.

—Ryan Bradford Whistle Stop, 2236 Fern St, San Diego.

South Park. Thu: ‘Girls Girls Girls’ w/ DJ Lazer Lizeth. Fri: ‘F-ing in the Bushes’ w/ DJs Daniel Sant, Rob Moran. Sat: ‘80s vs.

90s’ w/ DJs Gabe, Saul.

Winstons, 1921 Bacon St., San Diego.

Ocean Beach. Wed: Bohdi Rock, DJ Carlos Culture . Thu: Jerry Joseph & the Jackmormons. Fri: The Floozies. Sat: The Floozies. Mon: Electric Waste Band.

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November 16, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 29

LAST WORDS | ADVICE

AMY ALKON

ADVICE

GODDESS Mothership Of Fools This will sound crazy, but…should I tell my girlfriend, the love of my life, that I was abducted by aliens? It happened a long time ago, and I have no proof—just my own recollection. Yes, it could’ve been a dream, but even so, it changed how I see things and opened me up to new possibilities. My girlfriend is a schoolteacher and probably wouldn’t believe me. Whether she’d still stay with me, I don’t know. I want to be completely honest with her. Is that crazy?

—UFO-napped Strange how nobody ever manages to shoot video when there’s an alien spaceship in the vicinity—perhaps because they’re too busy recording that guy, two traffic lanes over, who’s picking his nose.

Like you, science historian and Skeptic magazine founder Michael Shermer felt like he had a little meet’n’-greet with some outer space dudes. However, he realized that his supposed abduction was just the effects of “sleep deprivation and physical exhaustion” because he had just cycled 83 straight hours in a bike-athlon. This—mixed with a “distant memory” of a TV episode about aliens taking over the earth—made for what Shermer calls “nothing more than a bizarre hallucination.”

Shermer notes that UFOs and alien abductions are “1. unaccepted by most people in astronomy, exobiology” and SETI (the search for extraterrestrial intelligence), “2. extremely unlikely (although not logically impossible), and 3. …largely based on anecdotal and uncorroborated evidence.”

However, Shermer explains, “the human capacity for self-delusion is boundless, and the effects of belief are overpowering”—leading many people to swear that they actually did go on a ride with the little green men. As “evidence,” they’ll tell you they have really vivid “memories”—of, say, the aliens bickering: “Just put him in the trunk of your flying saucer. Nah, got all my intergalactic soccer gear in there. You take him!”

But such “memories” are probably due to what memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus and her colleagues call “imagination inflation.” This describes how repeatedly imagining an experience can, over time, lead us to forget that the particular event— “heyyy, how ‘bout them aliens!”—came out of our imagination or a dream. We can start to believe it really happened.

For example, Loftus and her colleagues told research participants that a dream they’d revealed to the researchers probably meant that they’d had an upsetting experience before the age of 3, “like being

bullied by an older child.” The participants insisted that they didn’t recall anything like that. Yet, about two weeks later, many reported experiencing the bullying they were simply told about—even offering details on how they were supposedly oppressed by some other 3-year-old.

This makes sense, considering cognitive psychologist Robert Bjork’s finding that “using one’s memory shapes memory”—meaning that the more we recall something the bigger and stronger it grows in our memory. Also, in recalling some event—for ourselves or others—we have a tendency to “decorate,” adding details that can easily get merged into the particular “memory.” We quickly forget that we just threw them in to, oh, put on a good show at the alien abductee party because we were feeling all “my tinfoil hat is so last season.”

Also consider “cognitive dissonance”—the discomfort from simultaneously holding two opposing beliefs, like thinking that your worldview was transformed by UFOs while also thinking that it’s stupid to believe in UFOs. We tend to smooth out the clash by going with whichever belief works best for our ego.

So, in your case, to continue believing that you’re intelligent and also not cockadoody in the head, you tell yourself that your memory of your special vacay with the 00100010111 family has to be real.

As for what to tell your girlfriend, what counts is that you had these insights— not the sense that a space alien opened your skull up with some high-tech can opener and dumped them in. If you mention the alien thing at all, explain it in light of the science on how our memory likes to dabble in fiction writing.

While you’re at it, give yourself credit for your insights. It may help to understand our brain’s “default mode” processing. Our mind doesn’t just turn off when we take a break from directed, focused thinking (like reading, studying, or pondering something). Wider neural networks take over and do subconscious background processing—gnawing on ideas and problems we’ve been working on. This can make insights seem like they came out of nowhere.

But chances are, yours are a product of your mind and your real-life experience—an explanation that, sadly, lacks the panache of claiming the space dudes were going to use the anal probe on you but weren’t sure whether you could afford the copay.

The human capacity for self-delusion is boundless, and the effects of belief are overpowering.

30 · San Diego CityBeat · November 16, 2016

(c)2016, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved.

Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405, or e-mail AdviceAmy@aol. com (advicegoddess.com).

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November 16, 2016 · San Diego CityBeat · 31